Huang Xingguo, former acting Party chief and mayor of the Tianjin Municipality, has been expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) and dismissed from public office, disciplinary authorities said on Wednesday.

"Huang severely violated political discipline and the political code of conduct," the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) said, following an almost four-month investigation. 

Huang made ‘groundless criticisms of the Party's key policies and sabotaged the CPC's centralization and unity’, it added.

This is the first senior official who has been expelled this year. CCDI is expected to meet for the seventh plenary session of the 18th CCDI later this week. 

President Xi Jinping stressed in the New Year Address that China will press ahead with its anti-graft campaign.

In 2015, the CCDI undertook 36,911 anti-graft investigations, disciplined 49,508 officials, and severely disciplined 33,966 more.

From January 2014 to November 2016, 397 officials were extradited from overseas, and 8.5 billion yuan (1.2 billion US dollars) was seized in illegal assets. 

Regarding Huang’s case, CCDI also outlined a litany of violations on Huang's part, including giving out positions and other favors, accepting huge bribes of property and money, conniving with relatives, allowing them to use his influence to seek profits, taking advantage of his post to seek profits for his son and others, arranging an official entourage larger than allowed, and failing to supervise people around him.

"Huang was found to have disintegrated politically, grown greedy economically and become depraved in life," the statement said, adding that the nature of his violations was very serious.

(Story with inputs from Xinhua News Agency)