Two officials, including the former mayor of south China's Shenzhen City, have been stripped of their posts as deputies to the National People's Congress, the national legislature, after being investigated for serious disciplinary offences, the Guangdong provincial legislature announced Thursday.

The standing committee of the 11th Guangdong Provincial People's Congresses held its 12th meeting and passed a resolution regarding the removal of former Shenzhen mayor Xu Zongheng and Liu Youjun, former chief of the provincial department of labor and social security.

Xu Zongheng, 54, who became mayor of Shenzhen in 2005, was removed from his post for "serious disciplinary violations," in June.

According to media reports, Xu was implicated in a case involving China's richest person, Huang Guangyu, chairman of Gome, China's largest home appliance retailing chain.

Huang was detained by Beijing police last November for allegedly manipulating share trading, a charge being investigated by the Ministry of Public Security. Huang owns a third of Beijing-based Gome with estimated assets of 43 billion yuan (6.3 billion U.S. dollars).

Liu, 46, was a native of Jiangsu Province in east China. He had served in senior posts in the provincial government of Guangdong since 2003, including vice secretary-general of the government.

Their cases are being handled according to the law.

(Xinhua News Agency July 30, 2009)