BEIJING - Three senior executives of state-owned publishing houses were under graft investigation, said China's discipline inspection agency.

The three executives were Wang Junguo, vice president of the China Publishing Group Corp (CPGC), Luo Zhengyu, general manager of the textbook publishing branch of the CPGC, as well as Zhang Yueming, general manager of the World Publishing Corporation's Beijing branch, said a notice published at the website of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) on Monday evening.

They were under investigation for violating disciplines, the statement said.

The CPGC, running 40 publishing houses in China, is one of China's largest publishing groups and publishes more than 10,000 books, video and electronic publications as well as more than 50 newspapers and magazines annually, according to its website.

The World Publishing Corporation, founded in 1986, is a leading Chinese publisher of foreign publications.