China will not exempt anyone from its crackdown on corruption, according to its official newspaper the day after the government launched a formal probe into former local security head Zhou Yongkang.

On Monday, The People's Daily said the investigation into Zhou demonstrated the Communist Party's power to regulate itself. The mouthpiece newspaper also said the party treats everyone equally according to the rules and does not grant special privileges, Reuters relayed.

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The paper also talked about discipline within the party, saying no one should think he could escape from the anti-corruption campaign.

Zhou, 71, is one of the most powerful politicians in China. He is the latest public figure that President Xi Jinping's corruption crackdown ensnared since the beginning of the Communist Party's rule in 1949.

Yesterday, the Business Spectator reported that Zhou was put behind bars for grave disciplinary violations, a term the party uses in lieu of corruption. Chinese authorities also arrested his son on the same day for corruption, making it a historic event in the modern Chinese political history.

According to a Reuters report in March, authorities seized more than US$14.5 billion (CNY90 billion) worth of illicit assets from Zhou. This scandalous amount includes bank deposits, local and overseas bonds and shares, and 300 villas and apartments.

Rumors of Zhou's house arrest started circulating around international media last year, so his arrest did not come as a surprise to most people. The government also started cracking down on his corrupt associates in December 2012, arresting Sichuan deputy party secretary Li Chunsheng and sentencing his business associate Liu Han to death for running a crime syndicate.

Chinese authorities later on arrested and charged several more Sichuan officials and businessmen. Last year, the government began targeting corrupt executives in the oil industry and other state-owned firms.

Zhou was the head of China's security services since 2002 and had access to a department that had a bigger budget than the Chinese military.

President Xi's relentless corruption crackdown will most likely run across the whole political system of China, the People's Daily said. The anti-graft campaign will probably play a major role in shaping China's political and economic environment in the coming years.

TagsZhou Yongkang, The People's Daily, Reuters, Business Insider, Li Chunsheng, Liu Han