Another tiger has been caught in Chinese President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive launched in late 2012. He is Wang Tiangpu, the president of state-owned Sinopec Group.

Financial Times reports that the second-highest official in the petrochemical giant has been detained by probers of the Communist Party of China over suspicions of serious violations of discipline and the law.

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The party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) announced the investigation on Monday at its website.

Lu Dapeng, spokesman of Sinopec, said the company's top management had an emergency meeting on Monday after it received CCDI's notice. He added that Sinopec supports fully Beijing's decision, according to Reuters.

The New York Times hints that Wang would likely be fired from his job and kicked out of the party. He is also expected to be tried and prosecuted.

Other than the announcement, the party did not provide details on Wang's violations. His detention, though, is part of the revved up inspections of state-owned companies. In February, the CCDI said that the target of inspections in 2015 are 26 of China's largest state companies.

According to BBC, energy issues and oil companies are the focus of the investigations. Besides Wang, another oil executive, Zhou Yongkang, has been jailed and would be tried by May or June over corruption charges.

He used to be chairman of China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), a competitor of Sinopec, while he has three relatives who also benefited from CNPC, the largest energy company in China now. One of them is his eldest son, Zhou Bin.

Zhou is also an ex-member of the Politburo Standing Committee, making him the most senior party official to be tried for corruption since 1949 when the People's Republic of China was established, reports Financial Times.

Other major public officials under investigation, also for corruption, are Xu Jianyi, group chairman of FAW; Cui Jian, vice president of Baosteel; a general manager of China National Petroleum Corporation; and an executive of China Southern Power Grid.

Political and economic experts opine that the investigations are Xi's way of breaking the grip of state-owned companies in the Chinese economy and forcing them to change the way they operate.

TagsSinopec, Wang Tiangpu