By staff reporters Wang Xiaolin and Qin Xudong, and intern reporter Luo Jieqi

A former Guangdong Supreme Court official has been detained by Communist Party discipline officials for alleged bribery in what may be the tip of the iceberg for a wide-scale corruption crackdown, Caijing has learned.

The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection detained Yang Xianci about two weeks ago under China's “double regulation” system of party and legal justice. He was then brought to Beijing under an order from the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Yang last appeared in public June 17 while accompanying a deputy justice from Guangdong Province's highest court on a courthouse inspection. A source said Yang showed no signs of distress that day.

No one answered when Caijing called Yang’s office phone July 8, and public relations staffers at the Guangdong Supreme Court said they knew nothing about the detention.

Sources said Yang is a mid-level official whose position normally would not draw Beijing's attention. “Maybe Yang’s investigation hints at a more important case,” one source said.

According to rumors, Yang solicited a bribe from a litigator who had already paid a large bribe. The unhappy litigator then reported the incident to authorities.

Yang’s job involved enforcing court rulings, and he is not the first provincial official in such a position to be linked to bribery. In March 2007, Sichuan Supreme Court official Luo Shuping and Chengdu Intermediate Court official Wang Weiping were charged with bribery.

Pei Hongquan, a former deputy chief justice at the Shenzhen Intermediate Court, was sentenced in January to life in prison for bribery.

Enforcing court decisions has been a recurring problem for China’s justice system, and Yang was known for wielding an iron fist.

The Guangdong Supreme Court in 2003 spearheaded a reform effort that focused on property repossession cases, moving such cases from lower courts to intermediate courts. The next year, the court announced several measures to tackle debt dodgers.

These reforms apparently helped Yang consolidate power and reduce his personal risk.

Yang once told reporters that repossessions “are difficult for many reasons. One is that the court official has to deal with local relationships and interventions by local party members."