Jason Lee/Reuters
President Xi Jinping has made his strongest move to date targeting elite party corruption in China. On Tuesday, the Communist Party announced that former security chief Zhou Yongkang will be investigated on formal corruption charges. Zhou retired in 2012 from the Politburo Standing Committee. He is the first standing or retired party member to face an official graft prove. Xinhua, the state-run news source, announced the party “decided to establish an investigation of Zhou Yongkang for grave violations of discipline.” It did not release details regarding the exact charges. Although this is the first official acknowledgement, party insiders had known Zhou was being detained and investigated. Zhou had tight political control over the lucrative oil and gas sector. His son, sister-in-law, and son’s mother-in-law held about $1 billion in assets, much it from these industries.