China Aircraft Carrier Builder Manager Under Probe On Corruption Charges

INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Beijing:  China has launched a corruption investigation into the general manager of the state-owned firm
responsible for building aircraft carriers, a potential complication in ambitious plans to modernise its navy.Sun Bo is being probed for
"suspicion of serious breach of the party discipline and the law", Communist Party watchdog the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection
said in a brief online statement late Saturday
 Sun, 57, is second-in-command of China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation.The country's first domestically built aircraft carrier started
sea trials last month.The carrier, known only as "Type 001A", is expected to be commissioned by 2020, giving China a second aircraft carrier
as it asserts its extensive claims in the South China Sea and seeks to deter any independence movements in Taiwan.It is unclear whether the
investigation into Sun will have an impact on the new carrier's status.China's first carrier, the Liaoning, is a secondhand Soviet ship
built nearly 30 years ago and commissioned in 2012
 President Xi Jinping has pursued a highly-publicised anti-corruption drive since taking office in 2012, vowing to go after both senior
"tigers" and low-level "flies".(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by TheIndianSubcontinent staff and is published from
a syndicated feed.)