Xi moves into uncharted territory with purge

Hong Kong

CHINESE president Xi Jinping vowed to hunt "tigers" as well as "flies" in his drive to rid the ruling Communist Party of corruption, and on Thursday he defanged the most dangerous tiger yet - Zhou Yongkang, the nation's former chief of domestic security.

Zhou was convicted of abuse of power, accepting bribes and revealing state secrets, and was sentenced to life in prison. With the verdict, which has been expected since the party first announced last summer that Zhou was under investigation, Mr Xi has taken the Chinese political system into uncharted territory.