The ruling Communist Party’s anti-corruption watchdog announced in February that Ji was being investigated for suspected serious breaches of party discipline and the law, the usual euphemism it uses for graft.

[...] Ji worked with Zhou when Zhou was land resources minister in the late 1990s. He then followed Zhou to Sichuan province and became one of his secretaries when Zhou was provincial party boss, Ji’s official resume shows.

The two also worked together in the Ministry of Public Security in the early 2000s. In late 2010, Ji was shifted to Hainan province