Shenzhen mayor investigated in graft probe-report

HONG KONG, June 6 (Reuters) - The mayor of China's southern boomtown of Shenzhen is being investigated in a growing graft probe linked to the billionaire head of the GOME electronics retail chain, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

Xu Zongheng had been put under shuanggui -- a form of detention imposed on party officials, given his alleged links to Huang Guangyu, the founder of GOME (0493.HK) and once ranked China's richest man, the South China Morning Post reported citing several unnamed sources.

"It [his detention] must have something to do with economic irregularities ... but it could also have something to do with a power struggle," a government source was quoted as saying by the Post.

Corruption investigations in China can be proxies for political struggles.

Xu would be the latest in a number of senior officials to be implicated in Huang's graft investigation, triggered last year by alleged financial misconduct.

The chief of the disciplinary body in eastern Zhejiang province, Wang Huayuan, and the former head of police in Guangdong province, Chen Shaoji, were both detained for investigation in relation to Huang's case.

Stocks in GOME, China's largest electronics retailer, posted a 37 percent year-on-year drop in first quarter profit to 322 million yuan for three months ended in March, with trade in the stocks suspended since November 2008.

Shenzhen China