China sacks Qingdao city Communist Party chief

BEIJING, Dec 24 (Reuters) The Chinese government has sacked a senior Communist Party boss from the booming northern coastal province of Shandong for ''serious discipline violation'', the official Xinhua news agency said today.

Du Shicheng was Party chief for Qingdao city, a magnet for South Korean and Japanese investment and the venue for the 2008 Beijing Olympic sailing events.

He was also deputy provincial Party head.

Xinhua gave no details of Du's alleged wrongdoings in its terse report.

''The Communist Party of China's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection is investigating Du's case,'' it said.

Du, 56, appeared in the official Qingdao Daily newspaper as recently as Friday in a report saying that he had chaired a provincial economic meeting and given a speech.

The resort city of Qingdao is a former German concession and the home base of Tsingtao beer, one of China's most well recognised brands.

China is in the midst of a crackdown on official corruption, which the ruling Communist Party says is so widespread that it could threaten the party's credibility.

Earlier this month the Party expelled the disgraced former vice mayor of Beijing, Liu Zhihua, and judicial authorities launched criminal proceedings against him after he was found to have taken millions of yuan in bribes.

Liu had been in charge of building venues for the Chinese capital's hosting of the Olympics.

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