IntroductionOn 13 September 2016, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) held an extraordinary meeting and announced a decision unprecedented in the history of People's Republic of China (PRC). It disqualified 45 out of 102 delegates to the National People's Congress (NPC) elected from the Liaoning's People's Congress (LPC) for massive election fraud in the election of these delegates back in January 2013. The disqualification also resulted in removing 38 of the 62 members of the LPC Standing Committee, making the body short of the quorum required to convene meetings. Of the 523 (out of a total of 619) members of the LPC who were implicated in the vote-buying scandal, 453 resigned and one was sacked from their positions in the LPC.^The NPCSC later organised a preparatory panel to arrange a re-election of new members for the LPC. Due to the unprecedented nature of the non-functional LPC, the NPCSC was required to handle the situation through an innovative arrangement (chuangzhi xing anpai e'JiittSI#).(2) The president of the NPCSC, Zhang Dejiang, framed the incident as touching the bottom line of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics,(3) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) also pinpointed in a circular that the incident was a serious violation of party discipline and serious destruction of the electoral system of the People's Congress.!4) Some media highlighted the news by labelling it a case of paramount importance (tian zi yi hao an -§^). Of the 45 disqualified NPC delegates, 40 are private industrial entrepreneurs, four are executives of state-owned enterprises, and one is a public servant.(5) The majority of disqualified members with business backgrounds also points to the noticeable presence of business tycoons in the NPC. This paper intends to describe Liaoning's election fraud and its consequences in detail, put it in the context of Xi Jinping's Administration, and discuss its implications for the party-business relationship and elections in China.The People's Congress system under Xi JinpingLike the National Party Congress of the CCP, the People's Congress system (the PC system) in the PRC is underscored by the principle of democratic centralism. As the full assembly of the PC is only in session for several weeks in a year, the standing committee holds de facto power to execute legislative duties the rest of the time. However, the existence of the CCP alongside the PC system has long formed an informal power locus that decisively influences the operation of the PC system through the Party group (dangzu ^!) in the standing committee.(6) Members of the Party group are subordinate to directives and orders from their superiors in the CCP. The implication of this party-state fusion is that the PC system is heavily dictated by a few Party members in the standing committees at the various PC levels.(7)With regards to the election of PC delegates, members of the PC below the county level are elected by direct election. The PCs above the county level have their members elected from the PCs at the immediate-lower level, constituting the element of indirect election in the PC system. It is, however, no secret that the CCP attempts to control the electoral process through managing the list of nominated candidates and to drive off independent candidates who are not sponsored by the CCP.(8) However, such control has become less absolute since the introduction of the candidate-more-than-post system (cha'e xuanju, ) in 1982, which introduced a slight degree of uncertainty to the overall electoral process.Among many other functions, the PC serves to represent Chinese nationals from various geographical regions as well as an array of sectors, including peasants, workers, women, ethnic minorities, intelligentsia, and Returned Overseas Chinese. At the national level, the eight democratic parties, the People's Liberation Army, and representatives from Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan are also included. …