BEIJING: The former deputy commander of the Navy of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) was yesterday expelled from China's national legislature, after his mistress turned him in for economic crimes.

File photo of Wang Shouye. [Xinhua]

The National People's Congress (NPC) approved the expulsion of 62-year-old Wang Shouye at the end of its six-day legislative session.

He has also been dismissed from his Navy post by the Central Military Commission.

According to documents submitted to the NPC, an unmarried young woman informed authorities that she had been having an "improper relationship" with Wang "for a long time."

In January this year the army took disciplinary measures against Wang, removing him from his post due to his "loose morals" and abuse of power by seeking and taking bribes, the documents said. They note that his actions were serious violations of both the law and military codes of conduct.

"Because of my involvement in economic crimes, I had been stripped of the post of deputy Navy commander and thus I am no longer qualified to be a deputy to the NPC. Please remove me from the position," Wang said in a letter to the congress dated March 29, 2006.

Born in September 1943, Wang joined the PLA at the age of 24 as a civil engineering graduate from Tianjin University.

He rose to become head of the camp construction unit of the PLA General Logistics Department in 1995 and was appointed deputy Navy commander in 2001 and promoted to the rank of Vice-Admiral.

(China Daily 06/30/2006 page2)