The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) expelled two members yesterday for economic crimes and a third for being involved in a hit-and-run car accident.

The resignations of Zhu Junyi, Zhou Jinhuo and Huang Xuejiu as NPC deputies were approved by the NPC Standing Committee at the end of a six-day legislative session.

Zhu, director of the Shanghai Municipal Labour and Social Security Bureau, is accused in an NPC notice of a "grave breach of discipline" while supervising the use of government pension funds. The 55-year-old official is the first Shanghai bureau chief to resign as a national legislator.

He is under investigation on charges of receiving bribes and violating State financial rules.

More than 100 investigators from Beijing are in Shanghai to probe the corruption case in which money was siphoned off from Shanghai's social security system, which manages over 10 billion yuan (US$1.25 billion) in funds.

Zhou, former director of Fujian's Bureau of Industry and Commerce, was accused of graft. The 57-year-old official tried to flee overseas in June while being investigated for corruption by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. He was caught in Yunnan Province after police tracked a call he made to one of his three mistresses.

Huang, 55, secretary of the Mianyang municipal Party committee in Sichuan Province, was lambasted for fleeing the scene of a road accident after hitting and killing an 18-year-old girl. He was drink driving at the time.

The NPC Standing Committee yesterday also dismissed Li Baojin, procurator-general of the Tianjin municipal procuratorate, from his post on charges of "severe breach of discipline."

(China Daily 08/28/2006 page1)