Shanghai's new leader, Xi Jinping , vowed yesterday to shake off the impact of the city's biggest corruption case but offered few clues about the fate of his predecessor, who was sacked for allegedly stealing from the city's pension fund.
Mr Xi took over as Shanghai's Communist Party secretary in March after Chen Liangyu was removed in September for his alleged role in misusing the city's 10-billion-yuan pension fund.
More than 20 government and state company officials have been implicated.
'The case has created tremendous harm and left us with profound lessons,' Mr Xi told a party meeting in his first public comments since taking office. 'It has harmed the cause of our party and state, hurt the reputation of the Shanghai Municipal Committee, damaged Shanghai's reform and development and severely impacted on the ideology of Shanghai's cadres.'
He referred to Mr Chen as 'comrade' in the two-hour speech, indicating the disgraced leader still holds party membership and showing a decision has yet to be made about his case.
The authorities have already stripped two groups of officials of their party memberships and handed them to the courts to face criminal punishment, including four just this week.
Mr Xi, an outsider who most recently served as party secretary of Zhejiang province , vowed to fight corruption. Mr Chen's sacking was widely viewed as a move by President Hu Jintao to bring Shanghai into line.