China probes deputy minister on Olympic panel for discipline breach

By Michael Martina BEIJING (Reuters) - A deputy sports minister who sits on China's Olympic committee is being investigated for suspected "serious breaches of discipline and the law", the ruling Communist Party's anti-graft watchdog said using a term often employed to denote corruption. China's sports bodies are in the international spotlight, as Beijing competes with Almaty in Kazakhstan to host the Winter Olympic Games in 2022. China, which is aggressively seeking to stamp out graft in Party and government ranks, has also sought to eject corrupt elements from its sports establishment, especially within soccer, which has been hit by match-fixing scandals. President Xi Jinping, an avowed soccer fan like hundreds of millions of his compatriots, has bemoaned corruption of the game in China as a national embarrassment. In a brief statement on its website on Thursday, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said Xiao Tian, whose rank is equivalent to that of a vice-minister, was being investigated, but gave no other details of the probe. Xiao, a deputy head of China's General Administration of Sport (GAS), is listed as a vice chairman on the website of the Chinese Olympic Committee. Calls to GAS went unanswered. Xiao and the Chinese Olympic Committee could not be reached immediately for comment. Xiao has played a prominent role in the country's sporting establishment. In one of his more recent public appearances, state media reported in May that he presented an award to newly retired Chinese hurdler and national sports icon Liu Xiang. But in 2009, Xiao made headlines when he delivered a heated, expletive strewn response to reporters when asked about allegations of result-rigging at a national diving competition. Xiao also represents China internationally, holding a spot on the board of the International Basketball Federation (FIBA), the sport's world governing body, according to the organization's website. FIBA did not respond immediately to a request for comment. Many Chinese have linked previous sports cheating scandals to China's pursuit of victory and medals at all costs and have criticized the system for putting too much pressure on athletes to succeed. In January, GAS pledged to drop the nation's obsession with gold medals after the CCDI warned of the damaging extent of match-fixing and cheating in sports. (Reporting by Michael Martina and Ben Blanchard; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)