Liu Yingxia, a businesswoman ranked as one of the 50 wealthiest in China and dubbed "the most beautiful member" of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) was abruptly sacked from the government's advisory body last week.
41 year old Liu served in the army from age 15 to 20, after which she started her own construction business, the Harbin Xiangying Group. As chairperson, she led the company to become one of the largest property developers in Harbin with businesses in real estate, infrastructure and water supplies. Last year, wealth monitor Hurun Report listed her as China’s 46th richest woman, with assets of 4 billion yuan ($655 million).
Liu is one of a small group of highly successful Chinese business owners who are not members of the Communist Party. She was the youngest member of Heilongjiang’s CPPCC’s committee in 2002 and was elected as a national CPPCC member in 2003. She kept the post for 11 years and was dubbed the conference's "most beautiful member" by Chinese media.
This all came to an end on February 20 when Liu was booted from the CPPCC without an official explanation. State media speculated that Liu's sacking was because of her connection to dismissed official Jiang Jiemin and former internal security chief Zhou Yongkang. The Communist Party's internal graft watchdog announced in September that Jiang was being investigated for "suspected severe violation of discipline". Zhou has reportedly been under investigation for corruption since late 2013, but the government has yet to announce an official probe.
In the past year, the CPPCC has stripped four other delegates of membership, all of whom were under investigation for corruption.
In a recently publicized speech on February 11, Chinese premier Li Keqiang laid out several measures in the government’s ongoing fight against corruption, saying that the government will "decentralize authority, be more transparent and adopt a 'zero tolerance' attitude to corruption this year as it deepens its fight against graft".
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