Four new faces in Shanghai reshuffle
Shanghai announced four government and Communist Party appointments yesterday, including a new vice-mayor, as part of a sweeping leadership reshuffle following the sacking last month of the city's top official for corruption.
The party ousted Shanghai party secretary Chen Liangyu late last month for being personally involved in lending money from the city's 10 billion yuan pension fund, making him the highest-level mainland leader to fall to corruption in more than a decade.
State media made no mention of who might replace Mr Chen on a permanent basis yesterday. Mayor Han Zheng is now acting party secretary, but there has been speculation an outsider might take the top spot. Shen Hongguang, former head of the party's United Front Work Department, has become head of the powerful Organisation Department that helps set personnel changes, local television reported.
He replaces Jiang Sixian, considered too close to the ousted party secretary, sources close the government said. Mr Jiang is expected to be transferred, most likely to Hainan .
Yang Xiaodu, a former vice-mayor, had joined the party's Standing Committee and taken over as head of the United Front Work Department. A Shanghai native, he worked in Tibet for 25 years, including the time when President Hu Jintao was Tibet party secretary.
Yang Dinghua, previously the Shanghai government's secretary-general, would become a vice-mayor, taking Yang Xiaodu's former spot.
Meanwhile, Chen Yin was formally named as the acting head of Xuhui district, a major commercial area, to replace Sun Chao who has become chief of the western district of Minhang.
Several property developers who borrowed money from Shanghai's pension fund were scrambling to raise capital to return the funds, the 21st Century Business Herald reported yesterday.
