Shanghai ex-party boss "ejected from parliament"

BEIJING, July 25 (Reuters) Shanghai's disgraced former Communist boss has been ejected from China's parliament, a step that signals his imminent punishment for his role in a major corruption scandal.

Shanghai's municipal parliament decided yesterday afternoon to remove Chen Liangyu from the National People's Congress, the Web site of the well-respected Chinese magazine Caijing (www.caijing.com.cn) reported.

''This dismissal of Chen Liangyu as a National People's Congress delegate means the investigation that has lasted almost a year is entering its last act, and the case will enter the judicial process,'' it said.

Chinese President and top Communist Party leader Hu Jintao toppled Chen last September in an official probe into the misuse of money in the city's social security fund.

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

Chen, the first member of the party's decision-making Politburo to be purged for corruption since 1995, did not turn up in Beijing in March for the annual session of parliament.

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 open the economy in the 1980s, and the ruling Communist Party has warned time and again that it could threaten its rule if not curbed.

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

Xi Jinping, a political ally of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, replaced Chen.

REUTERS NC ND1358