More than 13.5 tonnes of gold was found hidden in the basement of a senior Chinese official's home in Danzhou city in the Chinese province of Hainan, Chinese media Wenxuecity reported.

Might be richer than Jack Ma if allegations true

According to international trading prices, the gold bars are worth S$884.8 million.

Here's a clip of the gold bars being counted, which was circulating on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/h1300062810/status/1176544309665030144

The clip can also be found on China's popular microblogging platform Weibo.

In addition, Chinese authorities discovered RMB268 billion (S$51.7 billion) in suspected bribes in the 58-year-old official's account.

If the corruption allegations are true, his wealth might even be greater than China's richest man, Jack Ma, who has a net worth of around US$37.5 billion (S$51.7 billion), according to Forbes.

4th senior official to be investigated in 2019

The official, whose name is Zhang Qi, was the secretary of the Communist Party Committee of Haikou.

He was also a member of the Standing Committee of the Hainan province.

Zhang was the 17th senior official so far to have come under investigations for suspected corruption in this year, local media reported.

In terms of provincial-level standing committees of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), he was the fourth.

Being investigated currently

In a statement released on Sep. 6 by the highest internal control institution for the party, Zhang was said to be suspected of seriously violating the law, and is currently under the authority's investigations.

If he is found to have committed "economic crimes", he could be sentenced to death.

Zhang was also reported to have attended a conference on Sep. 5, which was a day before news of the investigations broke.

News of Zhang's alleged corruption being uncovered was met with approval from netizens, with many of them supporting the Chinese government's efforts to catch both "tigers" and "flies" -- referring to high-ranking officials and junior bureaucrats.

Zhang joined the CCP in 1983.

Before becoming the mayor of Haikou, he served as the deputy mayor of Sanya city and the mayor of Danzhou.

Both were cities located in Hainan province.

Top image adapted via @h1300062810