BEIJING - Zhu Zhigang, a senior legislator of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature, has been stripped of his membership of the Communist Party of China (CPC), the CPC disciplinary watchdog said Friday.

Zhu received the punishment for "severe violation of disciplines and the law", said the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the ruling party's anti-graft body.

The legislator was expelled from the NPC last December, and two months earlier, the NPC Standing Committee endorsed Zhu's resignation from the positions of NPC Standing Committee member, director of the Budgetary Affairs Commission of the NPC Standing Committee, and vice chairman of the NPC Financial and Economic Affairs Committee.

Xinhua will follow up this story with more details on what Zhu has been accused of.