One of the two deputies to the National People's Congress, Chen Shaoyong, was suspected of taking 'huge sums of bribes", the Xinhua news agency said.

The other legislator, Mr Zhu Zhigang, a former director of the budgetary work committee, was under investigation for suspected violations of 'discipline and law", Xinhua said, without elaborating.

The term 'discipline violations' often serves as official Chinese lingo for acts of corruption.

Graft is a source of immense public anger in China, and the government frequently makes examples of ranking officials caught red-handed to signal that it is addressing the problem. -- AFP