China has exposed rampant corruption in a share-holding company in Heilongjiang Province in China's northeast, harshly dealing with company management personnel and government officials involved.

According to a report by the Chinese Communist Party Central Commission for Discipline and the Ministry of Supervision, the Daqing Lianyi Share-holding Company was found to be fraudulent.

Many were found to make bogus listings on the stock exchange and engage in nefarious activities such as embezzlement and bribery.

Xue Yonglin, chairman of the board of directors of the Daqing Lianyi company, set up the petrochemical joint stock company in 1996, giving away 941,500 stocks and 10.94 million yuan of premium funds to some organizations and individuals.

Xue and other senior management personnel were also accused of embezzlement and misappropriating public funds. Xue has been expelled from the Chinese Communist Party and removed from his post of vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the Daqing City

People's Congress. He is yet to face the judiciary.

Others staff of the company, including Xue Yugui, chairman of the board of supervisors, were sentenced to three and up to eleven years of imprisonment.

The report said that 17 bureau-level and 44 county level officials accepted stock-related bribes or bought stocks after being told of guaranteed profits.

Wu Yunbo, deputy secretary of the Daqing City Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Li Tianhong, a senior taxation official, and some other officials have all been severely punished.