A CLOSE aide of former Chinese Communist Party chief Mr Zhao Ziyang has scored a comeback as the head of a major corporation dealing in property.
Mr Rui Xingwen, a former party chief of Shanghai, will soon set up a semi-official company with at least 10 million yuan (HK$13.39 million) of investment from the State Planning Commission (SPC), according to informed sources.
A right-hand man of Mr Zhao's, Mr Rui, who was also a member of the policy-setting Central Committee Secretariat, lost all his positions after the Tiananmen Square crackdown.
In mid-1991, Mr Rui, together with such other Zhao aides as Mr Hu Qili, was ''partially rehabilitated'' when they were given ''honorary'' government positions.
Mr Rui was made a vice-minister of the SPC, and Mr Hu, a former politburo member, a vice-minister of machine-building and electronics.
However, it is understood that especially with the reduction of the responsibilities of the SPC, Mr Rui has not assumed a significant portfolio.
Sources close to Mr Rui, 65, said with his good connections in both Beijing and Shanghai and his retention of the vice-ministership for some time, he could turn his economic clout into political influence.