39 national lawmakers dismissed in two years: spokeswoman

BEIJING - A total of 39 members of China's national legislature were stripped of the lawmaker status in the past two years, a spokesperson for the legislature said here Wednesday.

Fu Ying, spokeswoman for the annual session of the 12th National People's Congress, attributed their disgrace to an ongoing nationwide anti-corruption campaign and stricter supervision over nearly 3,000 national lawmakers.

"An overwhelming majority of the national lawmakers are doing well," she said. "A people's congress deputy should neither stand idle while occupying the elected position nor violate laws and disciplines."

In China's five-level people's congress system, 90 percent of the 2.67 million lawmakers nationwide are lower than the county level, the spokeswoman said.

They should self discipline well to make the people's congress system, China's fundamental political system, work in a more effective and healthy manner, she said.

Fu also mentioned the election fraud in Hengyang, a central Chinese city where the country's largest election bribery in terms of people and money involved was reported between late 2012 and early 2013.

Investigations showed 56 candidates from Hengyang bribed 518 lawmakers and 68 staff at the Hunan provincial people's congress.