Former Public Security Minister Zhou Yongkang (File pic from 2007)
Mr Zhou was head of China's vast internal security machine until 2012
China's former security chief Zhou Yongkang has been charged with bribery, abuse of power and the intentional disclosure of state secrets, state media report.
Mr Zhou was, until his retirement in 2012, one of China's most powerful men.
He headed the Ministry of Public Security and was a member of China's top decision-making body.
Once Xi Jinping took over as president in 2013, however, he was put under investigation.
A formal probe was announced in July 2014, after months of rumours, and he has since been expelled from the Communist Party.
Network targeted
Mr Zhou's case had been sent to a court in Tianjin, a northern port city, Xinhua news agency reported.
The head of China's top court said last month he would have an "open trial", though no date has been announced.
In a brief statement, China's top prosecution body said that the allegations against Mr Zhou were "extraordinarily severe".
"The defendant Zhou Yongkang... took advantage of his posts to seek gains for others and illegally took huge property and assets from others, abused his power, causing huge losses to public property and the interests of the state and the people," it said.
Analysis, John Sudworth, Shanghai
Anyone who finds themselves formally indicted with a criminal offence in China knows the likely outcome.
But Zhou Yongkang will know better than anyone. He once ran the country's domestic security apparatus, with his power stretching into the court system, the police and the intelligence services.
He will eventually be found guilty, of course. But we should hesitate before swallowing too readily the claim by the Chinese authorities that the downfall of so senior a figure proves the effectiveness of the anti-corruption campaign.
The real question to ask is this: given that so many other senior Communist Party figures, past and present, have used their positions to enrich themselves and their families, why him?
The answer must surely be that there is no good reason, other than a political one. Zhou Yongkang may well have been hugely corrupt, but he will be tried by the same opaque, pliable model of Communist Party justice that he himself did much to strengthen and perfect.
