A senior figure in China's ruling Communist Party has accused a dismissed regional leader of plotting a coup against the party leadership in the clearest explanation to date of the abrupt firing of the former rising star.
Sun Zhengcai, who was dismissed in July as party leader in the western megacity of Chongqing, was among a series of disgraced former officials cited by the chairman of China's securities regulator as corrupt and plotting to seize power.
Speaking at a national party congress, Liu Shiyu, said Sun and others were "great not just in venality and corruption but in conspiring openly to usurp party leadership."
The party previously said only that Sun was accused of "serious discipline violations," a term usually referring to bribery and other graft.
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