Adil Nurmemet, mayor of Hotan in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, is under investigation for suspected serious discipline violations, the regional commission for discipline inspection said in an announcement posted on its website.

The 46-year-old from southern Xinjiang's Hotan prefecture began serving as mayor and deputy Party chief of the city in January 2009. The county-level city has a population of 321,400, and more than 88 percent are Uygurs.

Xinjiang has stepped up efforts to punish officials who violate Party discipline, introducing a series of measures to prevent misbehavior after the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the country's top anti-graft watchdog, found in July that the region had performed unsatisfactorily in implementating the Party's discipline guidelines. That conclusion was reached after a two-month investigation.