A senior provincial official was dismissed from all public posts by the local legislature in northern China's Shanxi Province Friday, more than three months after his disappearance due to an investigation into his alleged corruption.

The announcement of the missing official Sun Bingchen's dismissal came Friday from the Standing Committee of the 10th Shanxi Province People's Congress, the province's legislature.

Sun, 60, was elected secretary-general of the Standing Committee of the Shanxi Province People's Congress in January 2003.

Sun was also dismissed from his post as deputy to the provincial people's congress, according to the announcement.

"We are still searching for his whereabouts after his disappearance in September last year," said an official with the Communist Party Commission for Discipline of Shanxi Province, a watchdog against corruption.

The investigation into Sun's corruption by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the province began in early 2003 when people in Shanxi reported his corruption to the central government.

People complained in their reports that Sun had "economic problems" when he was director of the Shanxi Provincial Department of Justice and head of the provincial bureau of prison management.

The investigation of Sun's alleged corruption was once postponed due to the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) during the spring and summer seasons on the Chinese mainland.

The Shanxi Province anti-corruption commission questioned Sun five times beginning on Sept. 20 but he was not detained or arrested.

The last conversation between Sun and the anti-corruption body was on the afternoon of Sept. 28 and later that night he disappeared from Taiyuan City, the provincial capital.

Later investigation said Sun left his office at about 8:00 pm on Sept. 28 and disappeared after taking a taxi.

(Xinhua News Agency January 10, 2004)