A vice ministerial-level official in north China's Tianjin Municipality was sacked for "serious violations of laws and discipline," the country's top discipline regulator said Wednesday.

Pi Qiansheng, former member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Tianjin Municipal Committee, was stripped of his CPC membership and expelled from his post, according to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) of the CPC, the ruling party's anti-graft body.

Pi was formerly in charge of the Binhai New Area, a development zone regarded as an economic powerhouse in northern China. China wants to make the Binhai New Area the country's third economic engine, along with southern Shenzhen and the Pudong New Area in Shanghai on the east coast.

Investigations showed that Pi had taken advantage of his posts by accepting large amounts of money to seek gains for others, the CCDI said, without detailing the sums involved.

He was also found to have abused his power and caused large losses of state assets, it said.

Pi could face criminal charges, and his illicit gains were confiscated, according to the CCDI.

(Xinhua News Agency June 17, 2009)