The State Council, China's cabinet, announced on September 17, 2013 the removal of Jiang Jiemin from his post as head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC).

The statement from the country's supreme administrative body, which also supervises SASAC, came after Jiang was announced to be under investigation over suspected "serious disciplinary violations" by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Party's watchdog, on September 1.

Jiang's alleged crimes have not been specified yet.

Jiang was the Party chief of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) between 2006 and 2013, a State-owned enterprise (SOE), before being appointed head of the commission in March.

He was elected as a member of the CPC Central Committee in November, and is one of the most powerful officials to face investigation for graft since the 18th National Congress of the CPC.

Their downfall follows the investigation of a list of senior CNPC executives in the latest anti-corruption campaign.

Four other senior executives from CNPC were also sacked for "serious violations of discipline" last week, including Wang Yongchun, deputy general manager of CNPC; Li Hualin, deputy general manager of CNPC; Ran Xinquan, vice president of PetroChina, the listed arm of CNPC; and Wang Daofu, chief geologist of PetroChina.

Caixin Media, a Beijing-based magazine, quoted an anonymous source on Sunday as saying that the removal of the four senior executives "was triggered by the result of auditing Jiang as he left CNPC for his new post."

The policy of auditing high-ranking government or SOE leaders during their term or after they leave office was initiated by the State Council in 2010 to curb embezzlement and corruption.

However, an unnamed source was quoted by Global People magazine as saying that the audit this time on Jiang has been extended to 10 years, which dates back to long before his tenure with CNPC.