China orders more than 200 top officials to quit company positions

More than 200 senior mainland government officials have been ordered to resign from company jobs in a move meant to root out conflicts of interest and corruption.

The orders were made after the Communist Party's Organisation Department passed a rule in October last year banning government and party officials from also holding outside jobs, Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

A department task force found that 40,700 officials - including 229 at the provincial or ministerial levels - had extra jobs.

President Xi Jinping has been waging an anti-corruption campaign since he became party general secretary in November 2012, with warnings that graft and conflicts were a threat to the party's legitimacy.

The Organisation Department said banning senior officials from businesses would help build "a sound market order", Xinhua reported.

The department order triggered an "an exodus" of independent directors from about 300 listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen, the Economic Observer newspaper reported yesterday.