The Third Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Sunday approved a proposal from the CPC disciplinary organ for the removal of Yu Youjun from the CPC Central Committee.

Delegates confirmed a decision made by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on September 5 to subject Yu's Party membership to a two-year probationary period.

Delegates to the plenary session, which ended on Sunday, discussed and adopted a report submitted from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection on Yu.

Born in 1953, Yu was appointed Vice Minister of Culture in September 2007. He had previously served as head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Guangdong Provincial Committee, Shenzhen mayor, deputy Hunan governor and Shanxi governor.

The plenary session decided according to the Party constitution to appoint in his place 54-year-old Wang Xinxian, the original alternate member of the 17th CPC Central Committee, who is also the vice president and Party chief of China Disabled Persons' Federation.

(Xinhua News Agency October 12, 2008)