(Yicai) April 26 -- China’s Guangdong and Anhui provinces said they are investigating two former high-ranking officials in their healthcare and drug regulatory bodies for suspected corruption.

Duan Yufei headed Guangdong’s health commission and Liu Zilin Anhui’s regional branch of the National Medical Products Administration, provincial authorities said today. Neither of the provinces disclosed more details about the alleged violations.

China has placed under investigation at least 30 officials in the healthcare and drug domains so far this year, including 18 who were regulators in the health sector and 12 hospital administrators, Yicai calculated based on incomplete figures. 

The fight against corruption has been a major government priority since 2012, with the authorities vowing to root out both low-level “flies” and high-ranking “tigers.” It launched a big anti-graft crackdown targeting the medical sector last summer.

Duan stepped down as the director of Guangdong’s health commission in September 2021 after serving almost a decade as its head and chief of the local medical products watchdog. 

Liu retired in 2017 after resigning from Anhui's medical products administration and as the deputy director of the local healthcare regulator in 2013. He entered one of these roles as early as 1998.

Duan's successor Zhu Hong, who ended his tenure in 2021, has been investigated since last November, while Jiang Xiaodong and Su Shengfeng, director and senior official of the local medical products administration, also came under scrutiny in March.

Editor: Emmi Laine