China's top legislature confirms termination of Zhang Yang's lawmaker qualification

BEIJING -- China's top legislature on Wednesday confirmed that the qualification of Zhang Yang, a former member of the Communist Party of China Central Military Commission (CMC), for deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) has been terminated.

Zhang, also former head of the CMC Political Work Department, committed suicide at his home in Beijing on Nov. 23 after authorities launched an investigation into his links to two corrupt former senior military figures, Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou.

Investigators said that Zhang seriously violated discipline and law. He was also suspected of offering and accepting bribes and holding a huge amount of property from unidentified sources.

In addition, the top legislature finalized the resignation of Chen Xiang'en, a senior official with the supervision committee on state-owned enterprises in central China's Henan Province, as an NPC deputy. Chen resigned earlier for law and discipline violations.

The NPC now has 2,898 deputies.