The former president of the Guangzhou Daily Group has been expelled from the Communist Party for corruption, the Guangdong Provincial Committee for Discipline Inspection announced Wednesday.

Li Yuanjiang also once worked as head of the publicity department of the Party's Guangzhou Municipal Committee from 2000 to 2002.

An investigation by the Guangdong Provincial Committee for Discipline Inspection found that, between 1991 and 2000, while he was the group's president, Li accepted 327,000 yuan (US$39,500), US$29,000 and HK$10,000 (US$1,280) in bribes.

Zhao Zhenping, the committee's deputy Party secretary, said the investigation also found Li accepted 60,000 yuan (US$7,250) in bribes from an editor-in-chief of the Sichuan Business Morning Post surnamed Chen. This was part of a further 1.08 million yuan (US$130,000) that was secretly passed to Li under various pretexts in the same period.

The discipline inspection committee also said Niu He'en, a former director of the Guangdong Provincial Transportation Administration, had been expelled from the Party.

It said Niu accepted bribes of 2.57 million yuan (US$310,000), US$19,000 and HK$262,000 (US$33,600) during his term in that position. But the committee did not specify when Niu was in that post.

Niu's abuse of authority cost the State 100.31 million yuan (US$12.1 million), the committee said.

The committee said its evidence indicated that Niu gave special treatment to the Hushen Co of his son-in-law, surnamed Xie. The company made big profits improperly by winning an under-the-table bid to build part of the Shenzhen-Shantou expressway.

Both Li and Niu are to be punished in the courts in the near future, said Zhao, without giving a specific time.

The cases of Li and Niu should act as warnings to the mass of communist cadres, said Zhao.

In his early years at the Guangzhou Daily, Li was considered a role model for China's newspaper industry thanks to the achievements made under his leadership in terms of the news reports and also advertising and circulation.

However, Li later allegedly started to abuse his authority. He secretly accepted a "thank-you" fee of 30,000 yuan (US$3,600) from the leadership of Furong town in Guangzhou's Huadu District between August 1992 and June 1993. At that time, a building for Guangzhou Daily workers on holiday was being built in Furong on an area covering 200 mu (13.3 hectares). His activities continued until he was caught last June.

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