The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) expelled three deputies yesterday -- two for economic crimes and another for his involvement in a hit-and-run road accident.

 

The resignations of Zhu Junyi, Zhou Jinhuo and Huang Xuejiu as deputies to the National People's Congress were approved by the NPC Standing Committee at the end of a six-day legislative session.

 

Zhu Junyi, director of the Shanghai Municipal Labor and Social Security Bureau, stands accused of a "grave breach of discipline" in supervising the use of government pension funds. The 55-year-old labor official is the first Shanghai bureau chief to resign as a national legislator.

 

Under investigation on charges of receiving bribes and violating state financial rules, as revealed by sources close to the city’s legislature, Zhu was also dismissed from his bureau post by Shanghai lawmakers on August 11.

 

More than 100 investigators from Beijing arrived in Shanghai to probe the corruption case in which money was siphoned off from Shanghai's social security system which manages over 10 billion yuan (US$1.25 billion) in funds.

 

Zhou Jinhuo, former director of Fujian's Bureau of Industry and Commerce, was accused of graft in the relatively wealthy coastal province.

 

The 57-year-old official tried to flee overseas in June while being investigated for corruption by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. He was caught in Yunnan after police traced a call he made to one of his three mistresses informing her of his whereabouts.

 

On August 2 the Standing Committee of the Fujian Provincial People's Congress in east China decided to sack him.

 

Huang Xuejiu, 55, secretary of the Mianyang municipal committee of CPC in southwest Sichuan Province, was lambasted for fleeing the scene of a road accident in which an 18-year-old girl was killed. Huang was inebriated at the time.

 

A local property developer surnamed Qiu was made to take the blame when police began investigating the case. Huang was also charged with obstructing the investigation. The official has been ousted from his city post by the Sichuan provincial people's congress.

 

They follow a string of senior officials sacked from national legislator posts over the past few months.

 

Former publicity minister of the provincial committee of the Communist Party of China of east China's Fujian Province, Jing Fusheng, had his membership of the NPC terminated earlier this month for receiving bribes.

 

In late June, the former vice naval commander, Wang Shouye, had his membership terminated for moral degeneracy and for extorting bribes.

 

At the same time, two other legislators, Ge Zheng from Zhejiang Province and Luo Zeqin from Guangdong Province, resigned as national legislators. Ge was charged with illegal accumulation of funds and Luo with tax evasion.

 

Last year China's procurators investigated 8,490 government officials including eight at ministerial level. China's courts convicted 1,932 government officials of graft and six of them were ministerial-level officials.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 28, 2006)