China removes minister, strips ex-party secretary of legislative role

BEIJING — China ousted its minister of emergency management and stripped a former provincial party secretary of his legislative role on Thursday, state media reported, following corruption probes into the pair.

China will kick off its annual legislative meetings known as the "Two Sessions" on Wednesday, drawing thousands of delegates from across the country to Beijing.

The Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature, voted to remove Wang Xiangxi as minister of emergency management after a probe by the country's anti-corruption watchdog, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

They also voted to remove Liu Shaoyun from his position as head of the People's Liberation Army's military court, without explaining why.

The committee also removed 19 delegates from the NPC, state media reported on Thursday.

This included former Inner Mongolia party secretary Sun Shaocheng, who is under investigation for "suspected serious violations of discipline and law", a euphemism for corruption.

Among those removed were nine military officials, including former Navy commander Shen Jinlong and ground forces commander Li Qiaoming.

Reasons for the removal of the deputies were not specified.

Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed the military's "fight against corruption" earlier this month in a rare acknowledgement of graft weeks after Beijing escalated a sweeping purge by probing its top general.

Beijing's defence ministry said in January it was investigating Zhang Youxia, a vice chairman of the powerful Central Military Commission (CMC), as well as Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the CMC's joint staff department, which oversees combat planning.

Liu and Zhang were the latest to fall under a huge drive to root out graft at all levels of the Chinese Communist Party and state since Xi came to power more than a decade ago.
The drive has targeted the military in recent years.