Eight Communist Party of China (CPC) officials have been punished, some with long jail terms, for buying or selling government jobs, said an official at a CPC news conference on Wednesday.

The official confirmed that Cao Yongbao, former deputy secretary of Liangshan Prefectural Committee of the CPC in southwest China's Sichuan Province, has been removed from his post, expelled from the Party and sentenced to 13 years in jail.

He had taken advantage of his posts to help other officials get promotions and job transfers from 1994 to 2004. He took bribes worth more than 1.5 million yuan. He also unable to explain the source of his other assets worth of 1.074 million yuan and 11,800 US dollars.

Another offender, Zhang Gaiping, who received 1.069 million yuan in bribes to help 28 people get promotions or transfers between November 2000 to September 2005. Zhang was a former member of the Standing Committee of Shangluo city committee of the CPC in the province of Shaanxi and secretary of the Shangzhou district committee of the CPC.

Zhang has been removed from her post, expelled from the Party. She was sentenced to 13 years in jail Wednesday in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province.

Lu Chengli, former deputy head of the town of Tangzhui in Wuchuan city, of south China's Guangdong Province, has been removed from his post and expelled from Party. It was found that he was rigged his election to deputy town head by feting 12 delegates who nominated him and paying 55 delegates to the township people's congress 1,000 yuan each in return for their votes.

Wang Fuyuan, Tang Yajun, Peng Youming, Tang Shangcheng and Yu Ling were also held disciplined for trading Party posts, bribing delegates or arrange jobs for those they favored.

Liu Xirong, Deputy Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC, called on Party inspectors and organizers at all levels to enhance supervision of cadres in nationwide elections to township, county, prefectural and provincial Party Committees.

The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the CPC and the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee on Wednesday jointly held the press conference here.

The CPC announced the scandals as a deterrent against similar corrupt practices while the Party plans to shuffle of all of its local leading cadres, which will involve more than 100,000 local CPC leaders.

The shuffle, to be completed in the first half of 2007, has become a priority of CPC leaders as it will have a major impact on the CPC's work for years to come.

"Our Party's disciplinary and organization bodies should increase their supervision to ensure the shuffle that should be carried out cleanly and smoothly," said Liu.

The Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee said in a meeting held last May that the CPC had investigated 27,616 Party members and disciplined 3,591 of them.

The commission and the department also issued a circular requiring all Party rules to be fully respected. In 2005, a total of 334 CPC officials were criticized for seeking illegal promotions and 97 were punished according to organizational or disciplinary rules.

"Officials who try this should not be promoted and, instead, be seriously criticized," said Wu Guangzheng, secretary of the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection earlier in a speech.

"For those who trade official posts, all the cases unveiled should be handled in a tough way," he said.

Editor: Yan