Two dozen senior Chinese police officers punished, some expelled, in sweeping crackdown

Two dozen senior mainland police officers have been punished for violating the law and party discipline, with some expelled from the Communist Party and facing prosecution, the Public Security Ministry said yesterday.

One officer, Zhang Genheng, former head of the police border protection force in the restive far western Xinjiang region, was investigated for abusing his position. Zhang accepted bribes in exchange for promoting and recruiting police officers, the ministry said in a statement released through the party's corruption investigation agency.

Zhang had been expelled from the party and his case would be handed over to the legal authorities for prosecution, the ministry said without elaborating.

The public security ministry's border protection force is in charge of immigration and patrols at border posts - a duty often shared with the military in restive areas like Xinjiang where Beijing says it is battling Islamist militants who it claims often cross the border into China from places like Pakistan.

Several recently detentions of officials in Xinjiang have caught the public attention, including the arrest of Zhao Xinwei, former editor-in-chief of the region's party mouthpiece.

Zhao is accused of openly opposing the authorities' key policies and questioning or openly discussing the behaviour of central and regional party leaders. Zhao is ethnic Han, as are many of the other detained officials.

Since March, at least seven senior Xinjiang officials have been detained, the majority of them ethnic Han.