China's local party leadership reshuffle continued yesterday with two more provincial party chiefs installed in a further sign that President Hu Jintao is consolidating his grip on power ahead of October's 17th party congress.
In the latest round of personnel changes, Li Jianguo was officially named party secretary of the eastern province of Shandong and Qiang Wei was appointed party secretary of the northwestern province of Qinghai, according to a statement from the party's central committee released by Xinhua yesterday.
Mr Qiang, 54, replaces Zhao Leji, who took the job of party boss for Shaanxi province .
Mr Qiang once worked as the Beijing city party chief of the Communist Youth League, Mr Hu's key power base. He has spent most of his political career overseeing the capital city's legal and public security affairs.
Before being promoted to the position of Qinghai party chief, he was deputy party secretary of Beijing, in charge of the judiciary, and he also spent a short spell as the city's public security chief.
The Xinhua report did not say who would fill Mr Qiang's vacancy in Beijing.
Mr Li, 61, replaced Zhang Gaoli , who was named on Sunday to the top party job in the booming northern port city of Tianjin .