Beijing official removed from post

Lyu Xiwen, Beijing's former deputy Party chief and the first high-ranking official placed under investigation in the capital, has been expelled from the Party and removed from her post for serious violations of discipline, authorities said on Tuesday.

Lyu, born in 1955, ranked third in the Party's Beijing Committee after the capital's Party chief, Guo Jinlong, and its mayor, Wang Anshun. She is the third high-ranking female official to be investigated for alleged graft issues since the 18th Party Congress in 2012, when the new leadership took office.

According to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the country's top graft-buster, Lyu seriously violated political disciplines to breach the central authority's guiding principles and major policies, and she formed cliques to go against the Party's censorship.