Top scientist behind China's first COVID-19 vaccine expelled from Parliament for graft
COVID-19 vaccine at the height of the pandemic in the country in 2020, has been dismissed from Parliament for alleged corruption. Yang Xiaoming, the chairman of China National Pharmaceutical Group's vaccine subsidiary China National Biotec Group (CNBG), has been stripped of his membership in the National People's Congress (NPC) due to serious discipline and law violations, official media reported here on Monday. The charge of serious discipline and law violations is a common euphemism for corruption under the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) disciplinary practice.
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Yang, 62, is a veteran researcher who headed the CNBG — a vaccine subsidiary of state-owned Sinopharm — and led a team that developed Sinopharm's BBIBP-CorV vaccine, China's first coronavirus shot approved for general use.
Coronavirus first surfaced in the Chinese city of Wuhan in March 2020 and later spread to the world, becoming the pandemic of the century and claiming millions of lives.
According to a statement by NPC, Yang is already being investigated by the party disciplinary body — the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.
The Sinopharm shot and Sinovac Biotech's CoronaVac were the most widely used in China and the leading COVID-19 vaccines exported by the country.
Yang's dismissal comes amid the biggest crackdown on China's healthcare system, expanding a sweeping anti-corruption drive launched by President Xi Jinping in the last few years.
The crackdown aims to root out
