A former chairperson of China’s state defence giant China North Industries Group Co (Norinco Group), a Fortune 500 company, has been arrested on corruption charges, official media reported on Monday.

Yin Jiaxu, 65, also the former top Communist Party of China (CPC) secretary of Norinco Group, was “…suspected of taking bribes and making illegal profits for relatives and friends”, a brief report on his arrest said, adding that the decision to arrest him was taken by China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate.

Norinco, a major military-industrial group, provides weapons and technical support to the People’s Liberation Army besides exporting arms.

It is also engaged in the oil and gas business.

In April, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said Yin Jiaxu was suspected of “serious violation” of laws and regulations, expelled him from the CPC and confiscated his “illicit gains”.

Charges against him included “being addicted to golf” and trading “power for sex”, the CCDI said.

Initial investigations against him found that “…Yin had lost his ideals and convictions, betrayed his original aspirations and mission, was disloyal to the party, and resisted the authorities’ probe,” according to the CCDI statement.

Investigators found that Yin Jiaxu had “violated the eight-point frugality code on party and government conduct” by being addicted to playing golf, accepting gifts and money, and attending banquets that may have compromised the fulfillment of his duties, thus breaching the rules.

Yin had reported false personal information to the party, the statement said. “He had connived with his relatives by allowing them to do business and seek huge profits in violation of regulations, and traded power for sex and money,” according to the statement.

It also noted that Yin Jiaxu should assume the leadership responsibility for the huge loss of state-owned assets. He had abused his power to seek benefits for others and received a huge amount of gifts and money in return, it said.

Yin had violated the party’s disciplinary standards on politics, organisation, clean governance and life, and is suspected of taking bribes, the statement said.

He did not show “signs of restraint” even after the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012 when President Xi Jinping replaced Hu Jintao as CPC general secretary.

“Born in 1956, he (Yin) was the deputy general manager of China South Industries Group Co in 2002, and later served as the deputy general manager of Norinco in 2010, then as the chairman from 2013. Yin Jiaxu retired in 2018,” a state media report said.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which tracks the global defence industry, said in its December report that Norinco was the ninth-largest arms company in the world and third-largest in China, after Aviation Industry Corporation of China and China Electronics Technology Group Corporation.

President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign has netted several senior officials including those in the defence industry since it was launched during his first term in 2013.

In January, it was announced that the former chief of China’s multi-billion aircraft carrier programme and head of one of the largest shipping companies, Hu Wenming, would be arrested on charges of corruption.

Hu Wenming was expelled from the CPC in 2020 for severely violating party discipline and being suspected of taking bribes and misfeasance.

Xi’s long-running anti-graft crackdown has targeted millions of officials including hundreds of senior officials, who are often referred to as “tigers” while the relatively minor ones are called “flies”.

There has been speculation that the campaign has been used to target Xi Jinping’s political opponents and critics.