Three shipping industry figures have been caught up in China's latest political purge, including billionaire Wang Wenliang, the controversial chairman of Dandong Port Group.

This week China's National People's Congress (NPC), threw out 45 of its 2,987 delegates over allegations that they had bribed their way into the rubber-stamp legislature.

Shanghai shipping news website ship.sh found three important shipping names among those on the official list published by state news agency Xinhua.

Most of the 45 who were ousted, and all three of the shipping men, were from Liaoning Province, in which the port and shipbuilding centre of Dalian is located.

All three are heads or former heads of port groups: Wang Wenliang, chairman of Dandong Port Group and its parent Rilin Enterprises, Gao Baoyu, chairman of Yingkou Port Group until a corruption investigation was initiated last year, and Hui Kai, chairman of Dalian Port Group until his very recent unexplained resignation.

Wang, 61, the best known among them both within China and abroad, has drawn political fire in the US for donations to the Clinton foundation and to an election campaign of former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe.

Dandong Port Group and an agricultural importer controlled by Rilin have significant business ties to the port of Chesapeake in Virginia.

Wang is also a major donor to New York University, of which he is a trustee, and a donor to Harvard University's Asia Centre.

Gao of Yingkou Port Group, 61, served as chairman for 15 years but came under a cloud in March 2015 when the Communist Party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) initiated an investigation of the group over "suspicion of serious violations of discipline", a set phrase in Chinese government announcements that is considered to imply allegations of bribery.

Hui of Dalian Port Group, 52, resigned only last month as chairman for reasons explained only as "work reassignment".

NPC delegates are elected from provincial people's congresses, which are in turn elected by local people's congresses.

The NPC is an important centre of prestige and political influence in China despite its limited role.

NPC members are elected for five year terms, most recently in 2013, and meet in Beijing for two weeks once a year to enact into law policies already formulated by central Communist Party policymakers.