Qiu Xiaohua, the former head of China's National Bureau of
Statistics (NBS), who was sacked in October 2006 for suspected
involvement in a social security fund fraud has been expelled from
the Communist Party of China (CPC), according to Party's
anti-corruption watchdog.
With the approval of the State Council the Ministry of
Supervision dismissed Qiu from all administrative posts, announced
the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) on
Tuesday.
The CCDI said Qiu had taken bribes from company owners, led a
"dissolute life" that couldn't be supported by his regular salary
and committed bigamy when he served as an NBS leader.?
"As a senior cadre Qiu ignored the Party spirit and related
laws. His wrongdoing has caused a vile social and political impact.
He must be seriously punished," the commission said.
It also proposed expelling Qiu from the National Committee of
the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. Qiu had
been handed over to prosecutors to face criminal charges, the
commission said.
Qiu was sacked on October 12 last year only seven months after
taking the post of NBS director. He was suspected for involvement
in the 10 billion-yuan (US$1.25 billion) Shanghai social security
fund fraud.
Qiu was born in 1958 in east China's Fujian Province. He
graduated from the department of Economics of Xiamen University in
Fujian in 1982 and later joined NBS. He served as chief economist
and NBS spokesman from 1993 to 1998 before being appointed deputy
director in 1999.
Qiu's case is another signal of the CPC's hard stance against
corruption.
The Shanghai social security fund scandal, which Qiu was found
to be involved in, made headlines in September and led to the
removal of Chen Liangyu from the post of secretary of the CPC
Shanghai Municipal Committee. Chen is one of the country's
highest-ranking officials to fall in the country's latest
anti-corruption campaign.
Earlier this month the CCDI started investigating allegations of
corruption against the former head of the State Food and Drug
Administration, Zheng Xiaoyu, who left his post a 18 months
ago.
In December former vice mayor of Beijing, Liu Zhihua, who was
sacked in June for corruption, was also expelled from the
Party.
In 2005 the CPC handed down penalties to 115,000 CPC members
accounting for 0.16 percent of the total membership. The penalties
included 11,071 members being expelled from the CPC. O these 7,279
were handed over to? judicial departments for criminal
investigations.
President Hu Jintao pledged earlier this month a more severe and
systematic crackdown on corruption at the CCDI's Seventh Plenary
Session.
Hu called on government officials and CPC cadres at all levels
to establish a comprehensive system to expose and punish corrupt
officials and to make anti-graft efforts an integral part of the
country's economic, political and cultural development.
The CCDI has also brought "government officials' collusion with
business people" to the forefront of its battle against
corruption.
A total of 3,128 corruption cases directly involving government
employees and 968 million yuan (US$121 million) were uncovered
between August 2005 and June 2006, the CCDI said.
(Xinhua News Agency January 24, 2007)