Zhou Yongkang's path to power

Zhou Yongkang rose through China's state oil industry to become the country's internal security chief and amassed so much power that he brought about his own downfall.

If not for his spectacular downfall, Zhou's life could have been an inspirational rags-to-riches tale. He was born in the eastern industrial city of Wuxi, Jiangsu province in 1942, the son of an eel fisherman in a little-known eastern village. He was the eldest of three boys and the only one to attend university, from which he graduated as an engineer, according to financial news magazine Caixin.

He got his start in the 1970s as a technician for the Liaohe Oil Exploration Bureau in the northeastern province of Liaoning, home to China's third-largest oil field.

By 1996, he had worked his way up to head giant state-owned oil producer China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and went on to become the Communist Party chief in the southwestern province of Sichuan.

• Too powerful
• Alliance with Bo Xilai

Zhou Bin, son of Zhou Yongkang

Zhou Bin, 42, is the eldest son of Zhou Yongkang, China's former top security chief and a former member of the CPC's Politburo Standing Committee, who is being investigated over suspicion of "serious disciplinary violations".

The CPC officially announced the investigation into Zhou Yongkang on July 29 when an article on Caijing magazine's website said that Zhou Bin has also been arrested in Yichang in central China for suspected "illegal business operations".

The Caijing article said that the procuratorate in Yichang, Hubei Province, is investigating Zhou Bin's case and his mysterious business empire ranging from hydropower, oil and tourism to the investment sector.【More】

Liu Han, a tycoon linked to Zhou Yongkang

Liu Han, 49, a Chinese mining tycoon believed to have links to China's former top security chief Zhou Yongkang, was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by a court in Hubei Province in May for leading a gang on a crime spree spanning two decades.

The sentencing of Liu was the culmination of one of the highest-profile cases against a private businessman since President Xi Jinping took office last year and began a campaign against pervasive graft.

Liu is the former chairman of Hanlong Group, an energy conglomerate based in southwestern China's Sichuan Province that owns stakes in mines in Australia and the United States, and once tried to take over an Australian mining company, Sundance Resources Limited.【More】