By Saadet Gokce
ISTANBUL (AA) - China on Tuesday launched an investigation against the former mayor of Wuhan over allegations of “serious violations of laws,” according to a government statement.
The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission said Zhou Xianwang is under a “disciplinary review and supervision investigation.”
Zhou served as acting mayor of Wuhan from May 2018 to January 2021, a period that included the emergence of COVID-19. He was later elected vice chairman of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
In January 2020, Zhou publicly acknowledged that the city had failed to release relevant information about the coronavirus outbreak in a timely manner and offered his resignation over the lockdown decision, Chinese outlet Caixin reported.
The first cases of COVID-19 were detected in Wuhan in December 2019. The virus quickly spread around the world, leading to national lockdowns and causing nearly seven million deaths. By December 2022, China had officially reported 5,241 deaths from the virus.