A spokesperson said that a corruption investigation into a deputy Chinese sports minister who had sat on the country's Olympic committee "will not impact Beijing's bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics," according to Ben Blanchard of REUTERS. The Communist Party's anti-graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, said last week that China General Administration of Sport Deputy Head Xiao Tian is being probed for suspected "serious breaches of discipline and the law," the "usual euphemism for corruption." Beijing 2022 bid team spokesperson Wang Hui said that China was committed to holding a "clean Olympics" and that Xiao's investigation showed the "vigor" of the government's ongoing anti-corruption campaign. Wang: "I believe that the handling of Xiao Tian will not in the slightest affect our application. Quite the opposite, it will make Chinese sports even cleaner." Corruption in int'l sports "is in focus because of a U.S. and Swiss probe" into FIFA. Beijing "is vying with Almaty in Kazakhstan to host the Winter Olympic Games in 2022." A decision "will be announced on July 31." 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 football, which has been hit by match-fixing scandals. The government "has given no other details of the probe into Xiao and it has not been possible to contact him." His name "has already been removed from the Chinese Olympic Committee website" (REUTERS, 6/30).
