Former n-firm chief expelled from Chinese Communist Party

BEIJING - Members of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Monday endorsed a decision to expel Kang Rixin, the former chief of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), from the party’s decision making central committee.

The fifth plenary session of the central committee of the CPC also endorsed a decision to strip Kang, 57, of his CPC membership. The decision on his expulsion was earlier taken by the political bureau of the CPC central committee Dec 29, 2009, Xinhua reported Monday.

Kang Rixin was stripped of his post and his membership of the CPC for “serious violations of the law and breaches of discipline”, the party’s discipline watchdog said in January this year.

Kang, a member of the CPC Central Committee since October 2007, was found to have abused his authority, enabled profits for others, and taken huge bribes, according to the findings of investigations conducted by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Born in 1953, Kang became CNNC general manager in September 2003. On Aug 5 last year, the publicity department of the CPC Central Committee announced he was being investigated for alleged “grave violations of discipline”.

The CNNC, a large state-owned enterprise, comprises more than 100 subsidiary companies and institutes.

As the main investor and the biggest owner of nuclear power plants in China, it carries out research and development as well as construction in fields such as nuclear electricity production, nuclear fuels and nuclear technology application.