BBC NEWS
China's former security chief Zhou Yongkang is being investigated for suspected "serious disciplinary violation", state media say.
The news confirms rumours about the hugely powerful former minister, who has not been seen in public for months.
Mr Zhou headed China's Ministry of Public Security and was a member of the top decision-making body, the Politburo Standing Committee.
The move to target him will send shockwaves through the political elite.
He is the most senior Chinese official to be investigated since the Gang of Four - which included the wife of late leader Mao Zedong - in the early 1980s.
In a brief statement, state-run Xinhua news agency said the investigation would be conducted by the Communist Party's corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
No timescale was given for the probe, which has been widely expected in recent months.
Several individuals believed to have had close ties to Mr Zhou have also been targeted in corruption investigations in recent months.
Mr Zhou retired in late 2012 after a career that saw him head both the ministry charged with overseeing domestic security and China's largest energy company, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC).
Only a handful of people serve on the Politburo Standing Committee (in Mr Zhou's time nine, currently the number is seven) and they are seen as the most powerful individuals in China.
Zhou Yongkang was also an ally of Bo Xilai, the one-time high-flying former Chongqing party chief who was jailed last year.
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