China's former domestic security chief Zhou Yongkang, who was indicted early this month on charges of receiving bribes, abuse of power and disclosing of state secrets, is the highest Communist Party official so far to be targeted by President Xi Jinping's crackdown on corruption among senior party leaders. While Xi's anti-graft drive has helped him to rapidly consolidate his power base, it remains to be seen whether he intends to change the system that has allowed corruption to flourish in the first place.

Zhou was the No. 9 leader under the regime of Xi's predecessor, Hu Jintao, and controlled China's courts, police, domestic security forces and state intelligence service. He is the first former member of the party's all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee to be tried for corruption. The prosecution office said Zhou "took advantage of his positions to seek gains for others, illegally accepted massive amounts of wealth from others, abused his power, leading to major losses to public assets and to the interests of the state and people."

Of particular interest in his trial, to be handled by the No. 1 district court in the port city of Tianjin, is the charge that he disclosed state secrets. The office said the circumstances surrounding his deliberate disclosure of state secrets are "particularly serious." There is a rumor that prior to the 2012 party convention, Zhou tried to reverse a preliminary decision to make Xi party chief by conspiring with Bo Xilai, a former communist party secretary of the city of Chongqing, who in 2013 was found guilty of corruption, stripped of all his assets and sentenced to life imprisonment. It remains to be seen to what extent the trial will expose facts related to the charge of disclosing of state secrets and the rumored political conspiracy. Zhou was close to former President Jiang Zemin.