China's national lawmakers reduced

BEIJING -- China's top legislature finalized the dismissal of Ji Jianye, former mayor of Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, as a national legislator on Saturday.

Ji was removed from his post as deputy to the 12th National People's Congress (NPC) on November 29 by the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress, where he had been elected.

The NPC Standing Committee reviewed and upheld Jiangsu's decision at its bimonthly session, which closed here Saturday.

Ji was dismissed as Nanjing mayor after he came under investigation for serious discipline violations this October.

A statement from the NPC Standing Committee said that three other NPC deputies had resigned and one had died, reducing the total number of NPC deputies to 2,984.

The resignations were from Wu Yulu, former president of a coal mining firm in Central China's Henan province; Xu Long, former president and general manager of China Mobile's branch in South China's Guangdong province; and Wang Shujun, former mayor of Anshun City in Southwest China's Guizhou province. They resigned under discipline violation investigation.

Gao Xiaohong, a construction worker elected as NPC deputy in Beijing, died of illness in November.