(Yicai) June 30 -- Liu Shaoyong, a former chairman of China Eastern Airlines Group, one of the nation’s major three state‑owned carriers, is being investigated by the country's top anti-corruption watchdogs.

Liu is under disciplinary review and supervisory investigation by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Supervisory Commission on suspicion of serious violations of discipline and law, the two bodies announced on June 28.

Now aged 67, Liu entered the civil aviation industry in 1978. In 2008, he moved from China Southern Airlines, where he was general manager, to take up the same post at China Eastern. He was appointed chairman of China Eastern in December 2016 and resigned in 2022.

Liu, a qualified pilot, consolidated Shanghai’s aviation sector in 2009 by orchestrating the merger of China Eastern, which was then subject to a special treatment warning, with Shanghai Airlines, which was on the verge of delisting.

He was also at the helm when in 2017 China Eastern was the first civil aviation group in the country to trial mixed-ownership, introducing private and non‑state investors as shareholders.

Mixed-ownership reform has been a key strategy for modernizing China’s state-owned enterprises by bringing in private capital and management practices with the goal of improving efficiency, innovation, and competitiveness.

China Eastern was profitable each year from 2009 to 2019 but has been losing money since 2020, following the Covid-19 pandemic. Its loss topped CNY4.2 billion (USD590 million) last year, the most among the big major state airlines, while its revenue rose 16 percent to CNY132.1 billion (USD18.4 billion) from the previous year, ranking second behind China Southern.

Editor: Martin Kadiev