Zhou Mingwei transferred to 'obscure' foreign languages bureau
Zhou Mingwei, a deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office who was once considered a rising political star, has been transferred to the obscure Foreign Languages Bureau.
The move sideways came after Mr Zhou and other officials at the office reportedly came under heavy criticism for failing to prevent Taiwan's President Chen Shui-bian from pushing through with his referendum timetables and for losing the initiative in cross-strait relations.
In mid-November, alarmed by Mr Chen's move and the shift by the opposition Kuomintang and People First Party alliance in abandoning their objection to a referendum bill, President Hu Jintao reportedly called a cabinet-level meeting during which he criticised the Taiwan Affairs Office for failing to grasp the Taiwan situation.
Mr Zhou, who was in charge of communicating with the United States on Taiwan issues, was in the hot seat, taking the blame for not getting the forceful message across to the US that the mainland would not tolerate Taiwan's flirting with independence under any circumstances.
The strongest warning came from Premier Wen Jiabao, who told The Washington Post before travelling to the US that Beijing was prepared to 'pay any price' to safeguard national unity.
The 48-year-old Mr Zhou, a graduate of Fudan University in Shanghai with a major in international relations, had worked in the Taiwan Affairs Office since 2000.