1947-born Meng Jianzhu, Politburo member and Secretary of Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission (Zhengfawei), was recently reported by two  independent Hong Kong-based political magazines, Qianshao and Chengming, to have disclosed in a confidential speech to party cadres that China's most closely guarded secret­s, including nuclear codes, had been lost to America. The state secrets passed to Washington included personnel data, security passwords, communications codes,information on command and control systems linking the ­Communist Party central committee in times of crisis with the  State Council and the Central Military Commission, nuclear weapons launch protocols and blueprints of the Zhongnanhai leadership compound. Ling Jihua's brother Ling Wancheng fled to the US with a cache of 2700 classified documents after his brother Ling Jihua, the right-hand man of former president Hu Jintao, was brought down by a scandal caused when his Ferrari-driving son was killed in a spectacular car crash in centra­l Beijing. Describing the breach as the most serious in 60 years, Meng Jianzhu said “While at the head of the party’s central institutions, director of the office of the party and the nation, Ling dared to steal top secrets from the archives in his trust and these were ultimately handed to the US.”