Beijing officials expelled, probed over graft

BEIJING - Beijing's disciplinary watchdog has announced the removal of a former traffic official from the Communist Party of China (CPC) amid a widening anti-corruption drive.

Song Jianguo, former head of the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau under the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, has been expelled from the CPC for taking huge sums in bribes, according to Beijing's municipal commission for discipline inspection.

Song has been transferred to local judicial organs, the commission announced in a statement posted on its official website on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, authorities have launched probes into three other Beijing officials, the statement said.

Wang Hongzhong, head of Mentougou District, is being investigated over suspected "serious discipline violations." Also being probed are Wen Zhen, an official of Daxing District, and Ding Zhenkuan, former deputy head of the Beijing Administration of Work Safety.

Since taking the helm of the CPC in November 2012, President Xi Jinping has led efforts to fight corruption, targeting both high-ranking "tigers" and low-ranking "flies."

On July 29, the CPC announced an investigation into Zhou Yongkang, a former Standing Committee member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, the highest-ranking "tiger" caught in the anti-corruption campaign's crosshairs so far.

In the first half of 2014, prosecutors investigated more than 25,000 people on suspicion of corruption, according to statistics released by the Supreme People's Procuratorate in July.