A top Communist Party official in Fujian province has been expelled from the party and stripped of all his official titles for taking bribes, state media report.
Chen Shaoyong was sacked as secretary general of the provincial party committee and expelled from the committee, Xinhua reported yesterday, citing a decision by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party's top disciplinary watchdog. He was also stripped of his seat in the National People's Congress last month.
The report said that besides taking bribes, Mr Chen, 53, 'abused power' and 'has a decadent lifestyle' - usually a euphemism referring to keeping mistresses.
Investigations showed that Mr Chen had abused his office by accepting large amounts of money and property in return for giving preferential treatment, Xinhua quoted the disciplinary commission as saying, without detailing the sums involved.
But China News Service reported earlier that Mr Chen had taken at least 12 million yuan (HK$13.6 million) in bribes. The commission started to investigate the matter early last year. Xinhua said Mr Chen had already been handed over to prosecutors and could face criminal charges. The earnings that the commission deemed illegally obtained were also confiscated.
Mr Chen is the second senior Fujian official to be sacked over corruption allegations in the past three years. Last September, Jing Fusheng , a member of the province's standing committee and director of the Publicity Department, was sentenced to life in jail for accepting more than 7.66 million yuan in bribes.
