Bo Xilai set to be stripped of NPC membership
NPC Standing Committee will vote to remove fallen Chongqing party chief from legislature, a precursor to his expulsion from the party
Disgraced former Chongqing party chief Bo Xilai is expected to be stripped of his membership of the legislature this week, as Beijing scrambles to put an end to the country's worst political scandal in decades ahead of a once-in-a-decade leadership reshuffle.
A decision on Bo, a Politburo member, will likely be put to a vote at the end of a five-day session of the National People's Congress Standing Committee that began yesterday and is held every two months, say analysts.
Several draft laws will also be introduced for their first reading at the session, including a much-anticipated revision of the Environmental Protection Law.
The national legislature did not mention Bo by name in its announcement of the session's agenda, but state media highlighted an item that said a decision on the NPC membership of individual deputies would be reviewed.
"Bo must be one of the deputies awaiting such punishment, while it may also refer to other deputies, who are usually notoriously corrupt officials," said Professor Hu Xingdou , a Beijing-based political analyst.
Professor Jiang Mingan , a law expert at Peking University, said it was expected that the party would try to put the Bo scandal to rest before this autumn's 18th party congress, as the case had become a source of contention among the party elite and had overshadowed the looming leadership shake-up.
Bo's wife, Gu Kailai , was this month given a suspended death sentence by a court in Hefei for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood last November.