Disgraced railway minister expelled from CCP

The Chinese Communist Party has officially expelled Liu Zhijun, the former Railway Ministry head who was removed from his position last February on grounds of corruption, The Wall Street Journal reported. State media said that the 170-member CCP Central Committee found Liu guilty of “severe violations of discipline” including corruption and abuse of his ministerial authority. Liu “accepted a huge amount of bribes and valuables from others and was morally corrupted,” said People’s Daily, a mouthpiece of the CCP. “He shoulders primary leadership responsibilities for the serious corruption problem within the railway system.” The ruling clears the way for Liu to be prosecuted under the judicial system, where analysts expect a guilty verdict. It could also set a precedent for how the CCP will handle the more sensitive case of Bo Xilai, a former party secretary of Chongqing who has recently been expelled from the Politburo.