Thailand's Prayad Marksaeng hits a ball on the fairway of the 18th hole during the 3rd round of the China Open at the Beijing Honghua International Golf Club course in Beijing, China, Saturday April 15, 2006.
Wang Shenyang, head of the Commerce Ministry's cooperation department, is under investigation for breaking rules on extravagance by "participating in golf and other events organized by companies," Reuters reported.
Wang is the latest in a line of hundreds of thousands of high and low level Chinese Communist Party officials who've found themselves ensnared in President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive. The probe has promised to go after powerful "tigers" and lowly "flies." And it has delivered, prosecuting even China's former security chief, the highest level party official to go down since the days of Mao.
The Global Times, a Chinese state media organization which described Wang as head of the Department of Outward Investment and Economic Cooperation, said the golf event was organized by an unnamed company.
According to the South China Morning Post, Wang may also be suspected of using company funds to pay for his personal golfing expenses. His predecessor at the Ministry of Commerce, Wu Xilin, is also under investigation for corruption.
The news comes after Chinese authorities on Monday announced they had closed 66 golf courses around the country for environmental reasons. The closures are based on a rarely-enforced ban imposed in 2004 to protect land and water resources.
Golf was banned in China as a "bourgeois excess" under Mao Zedong's rein as chairman. Today, China's wealthy see golf as a way of affirming their status.