Xi Jinping prevented coup, claims senior official

Chinese President Xi Jinping has been known to be severe on any act of corruption ever since he assumed office in 2012, and in the course of this campaign to end it, managed to nip an attempted coup on his rule in the bud, a senior official of the government in Beijing has claimed.

Addressing a panel discussion in Beijing held on the sidelines of the ongoing 19th Party Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Thursday, the Chairman of the Securities Regulatory Commission, Liu Shiyu, claimed that President Xi Jinping was instrumental in ordering the arrest of six so- called "Tigers" under a national anti-corruption campaign.

The persons arrested included former security czar Zhou Yongkang and former Chongqing party secretary Bo Xilai, who Shiyu claimed had plotted to "usurp the party and seize power."

The other four placed in detention included two former Central Military Commission (CMC) vice chairmen- Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, former top adviser to former President Hu Jintao, Ling Jihua, and Sun Zhengcai, also a Chongqing Party Secretary.

Shiyu said, "Their crimes of corruption as well as usurping the party and seizing power were scary. The Party Central Committee with comrade Xi as the core saved the party, the army and the country, and, in a global scope, also saved socialism," the Hong Kong based The Standard newspaper quoted him, as saying.

-ANI with inputs