Disgraced Shanghai ex-party boss to face the music

BEIJING, July 23 (Reuters) Shanghai's disgraced former Communist boss will be formally removed from China's parliament tomorrow, signalling that punishment for his role in a pension scandal is imminent, a Hong Kong newspaper said today.

Chen Liangyu was sacked as party boss in September amid an official probe into the misuse of money in the city's social security fund, the first member of the party's decision-making Politburo to be purged for corruption since 1995.

The snowballing scandal has implicated more than a dozen senior officials and businessmen.

''Depriving (Chen) of his unique right of exemptions as a National People's Congress delegate means the day is not far off when Chen Liangyu will accept party disciplinary and state legal punishment,'' the Beijing-backed Ta Kung Pao said today.

China's ruling Communist Party has vowed to take new steps to root out corrupt officials ahead of a key meeting later this year and ensure that tainted members cannot rise any further.

Corruption has become rampant since market reforms in the 1980s, prompting the Communist Party to warn it could threaten its rule if not curbed.

But anti-graft investigators are hampered by a political system that permits few checks and balances on official power and by a judiciary packed with party-appointed judges.

Reuters SKB DB0845