Yang Dongliang, director of the State Administration of Work Safety, is under investigation by the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI).

Yang is suspected of "severe violation of discipline and law", the CCDI announced in a statement on Tuesday, without providing further details.

Yang is a member of the 18th CPC Central Committee.

According to Yang's resume on the CCDI website, the 61-year-old served as vice mayor of Tianjin Municipality from 2001 to May 2012, before he was appointed director of the State Administration of Work Safety.

Before 2001, he worked for the municipal government and state-owned firms in Tianjin as well as oil field firms in north China.