A Party boss in south China Shenzhen city is under investigation for taking bribes and offering promotions in return.

Li Ping, Party Secretary of Shenzhen's Futian District, was facing inquiries over "economic problems and errors in promotions," Beijing News reported today.

The 47-year old official served in Futian for more than three years. A Futian official surnamed Wang said there was no warning before Li was taken at 6am on April 29.

Li was acclaimed as a hard worker by his former colleagues. But Wang told the newspaper that in a promotion test this March, those who won promotion performed very badly in the tests. Li decided who won career advancement.

He was said to be involved in the matter of Xu Zongheng, Shenzhen's former mayor, whose dismissal last year led to the investigation of the city's three vice mayors and two other district officials.

Li and Xu's homes were only blocks away in their hometown in Hunan Province. Li got promoted three times in two years after Xu became Shenzhen mayor in 2005, the report said.

The snowballing inquiry into the network of corrupt officials involving Xu was started after Xu was investigated in June last year after being implicated by Huang Guangyu, China's appliance king.

Huang, founder of Gome Electrical Appliances Holdings Ltd, who was once ranked the richest man on the mainland, stood trial last month for graft and insider trading.