中国铁道部部长被解职China’s railway chief dismissed

China’s minister of railways, Liu Zhijun, has been removed from the top position at the ministry and put under investigation for “severe disciplinary violations”, according to a report from the Xinhua news agency.

新华社报道称，中国铁道部部长刘志军已被解除职务，并正因涉嫌“严重违纪”而接受调查。

Mr Liu is the most senior Chinese official to come under investigation since the Shanghai party boss Chen Liangyu was forced out of office in 2006 and later sentenced to 18 years in prison for corruption.

自2006年上海市委书记陈良宇被解职、后因腐败罪被判18年徒刑以来，刘志军是中国受到调查的最高级官员。

Although Xinhua provided no details about the reason for the probe, it is likely to raise questions about China’s major investment into high-speed rail, which Mr Liu spearheaded.

虽然新华社没有提到调查的具体原因，但此举可能令人对中国在高速铁路方面的重大投资（刘志军曾主持这项工作）产生疑问。

Mr Liu has been removed from his position as the Communist party secretary at the railways ministry, Xinhua said, citing the party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. While there was no announcement about whether Mr Liu was still a minister, the public disclosure of such investigations is often the precursor for formal criminal charges. On the ministry’s website, the page outlining its leadership structure was taken down over the weekend.

新华社援引中共中央纪律检查委员会官员的话报道称，刘志军已被免除铁道部党组书记职务。尽管公告没有提及刘志军是否仍担任铁道部部长，但公开宣布此类调查，往往意味着正式的刑事诉讼即将来临。在中国铁道部网站上，介绍领导层结构的页面周末被撤下。

Aware of simmering public anger about corruption, Beijing has launched a string of probes in recent years that have led to the prosecution of a number of senior officials, including the head of the State Food and Drug Administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, who was executed in 2007 for taking bribes. According to Xinhua, 146,517 officials at all levels of government were punished for corruption last year.

由于意识到公众对腐败的愤怒不断升温，中国政府近年来发起了一系列调查，导致多名高官被提起公诉，其中包括国家食品药品监督管理局局长郑筱萸，他因收受贿赂在2007年被判处死刑。据新华社消息，去年有14.6517万名各级政府官员因腐败而受到惩处。

Analysts believe, however, that high-profile arrests at the top levels of government usually involve a broader political agenda. In the past, the railways ministry has been one of the most independent of the country’s main bureaucracies and has resisted attempts to reform some of its procedures.

不过，分析人士认为，政府高层出现的令人瞩目的逮捕行动，通常涉及某个更广泛的政治议程。以往，铁道部一直是中国主要官僚体制中最独立的机构之一，多次抵制对本部门的某些程序进行改革。

Mr Liu, a career official in the rail sector, has been railways minister since 2003, an unusually long period. He was also a member of the party’s central committee – about 370 leading officials in the country.

长期在铁路部门任职的刘志军，自2003年起一直担任铁道部部长，任期长得异乎寻常。他还是大约370人组成的中共中央委员会的一名成员。

The Railway Ministry said last month that domestic rail investment for 2011 would top Rmb700bn ($106bn), roughly the same as last year, with about 70 new intercity projects scheduled to break ground.

铁道部上月表示，2011年国内铁路投资将达到7000亿元人民币（合1060亿美元），与去年大致持平，有大约70个新的城际铁路项目计划上马。