Congress deputy removed from post following rape scandal

A People's Congress deputy from a city in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has been sacked after a female journalist accused him of rape, authorities confirmed Monday.

Sun Dejiang, general manager of the Shuangcheng City Industry Corporation, was suspended from his post as the city of Shuangcheng's People's Congress deputy on Dec. 1 and removed from his position in the company on Monday, according to the Standing Committee of the city's People's Congress and the city's Communist Party of China (CPC) Committee.

The decisions were made after Wang Dechun, a local journalist, wrote in a microblog post on Nov. 23 that Sun had forced her into maintaining an adulterous relationship with him.

Wang said Sun forced her to have sex with him even when she was seven-month pregnant. She also accused him of abusing his power for personal gain.

An initial investigation showed that Sun had previously helped Wang's mother illegally falsify her retirement claim. Other allegations are still being investigated.

Sun is the second official to be removed from his post following a sex scandal in recent weeks. Lei Zhengfu, a top district official in southwest China's Chongqing municipality, was removed from his post in late November after he was identified in a sex video that was widely circulated online.