China's Communists expel suicide posthumously

BEIJING, July 5 (Reuters) One of the most senior Chinese officials to commit suicide in decades has been stripped posthumously of his Communist Party membership.

Song Pingshun, 61, former chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) in the northern port city of Tianjin, killed himself in June after coming under investigation for corruption. The government confirmed the suicide but has given scant details.

Song had been investigated for ''serious violations of (party) discipline and the law'', and the party's decision-makers approved a proposal to expel Song on Tuesday, the official Xinhua news agency said today.

Xinhua also reported that Song kept a mistress and used his influence to help her make money illegally.

He once served as Tianjin's vice-mayor, police chief and secretary of the party's Tianjin Political Science and Law Commission, which oversees police, prosecutors and judges.

The Tianjin CPPCC is the top advisory body to the local people's congress, or city council.

Song held a rank equivalent to a cabinet minister because of Tianjin's high political status.

Suicide is not uncommon among Chinese officials targeted in corruption probes because it protects their families from efforts to confiscate assets.

The suicide of Beijing vice-mayor Wang Baosen in 1995 led to the downfall months later of then Beijing party boss Chen Xitong, who also lost his seat in the party's decision-making Politbureau.

REUTERS AGL BD1437