The former Chinese governor criticised for mishandling the Covid-19 outbreak is under investigation for corruption.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), China’s top political disciplinary body, said on Sunday that Wang Xiaodong, 66, who was governor of Hubei province in 2020 as the coronavirus developed into a pandemic, was suspected of “serious violations of discipline and law” – the standard euphemism for corruption.

Wang was Hubei’s governor from 2017 to 2021 and was widely ridiculed on social media after he said at a press conference in late January 2020 that the province could make 10.8 billion surgical masks. An aide then passed him a note and he corrected himself to say 10.8 million.

In June 2021, Wang was transferred to Beijing to serve as deputy director of the Agricultural and Rural Affairs Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, a senior semi-retirement position.

It capped a political career that began in 1983 in southeastern Jiangxi province before his transfer a decade later to southwestern Guizhou province, where he rose to vice-governor. He was transferred to Hubei in 2011.