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SCMP Reporter

THE Chinese leadership has decided to appoint the party boss of Shandong province, Jiang Chunyun, as vice-premier in charge of agriculture.

Chinese sources said yesterday the promotion would be endorsed at the plenary session of the National People's Congress next March.

The sources said the Communist Party leadership was also considering appointing the former party boss of Shanghai, Wu Bangguo, as another vice-premier. The sources said their appointments as vice-premiers would strengthen the hand of President Jiang Zemin, a patron of the two rising stars.

Both Mr Jiang Chunyun, 64, and Mr Wu, 53, who are Politburo members, were inducted into the secretariat of the party Central Committee last month.

Mr Jiang is seen as a logical candidate for the agriculture portfolio because of Shandong's success in striking a balance between industrial and agrarian development.

The rich coastal province has been repeatedly praised by Mr Jiang for maintaining high yields in grain and other staples and for conserving arable land in spite of its fast economic development.

Reflecting the growing influence of conservative party elders such as Chen Yun, the leadership has returned to the old slogan of 'taking grain as the key link' of the economy.

'Since the early 1990s there has been no vice-premier with specific responsibility for agriculture,' a source said. 'Jiang's accession to the agriculture portfolio is a sign of his expanding political clout.' The source said, however, that the liberal wing of the party had viewed Mr Jiang's fast-track promotion with dismay because of his reputation for bending with the political wind.

For the past three years, Mr Jiang has linked his fate with relatively conservative politicians such as President Jiang.

In private speeches, the heavyweight Shandong politician, who has a bachelor's degree in Chinese literature from a correspondence course, has railed against 'bourgeois liberalisation' and the influx of 'decadent' Western ideas.

Sources in Shandong said in order to curry favour with Beijing, Mr Jiang had agreed to make 'excessively large' financial and other contributions to central coffers.

This had in turn alienated him from those Shandong cadres who wanted more funds for local development.

Mr Jiang has also incurred the ire of Vice-Premier Zhu Rongji for apparently failing to observe a tight money policy.

The Shandong sources said on a recent visit to the provincial capital of Jinan, Mr Zhu indirectly criticised the party boss for approving long-term loans for a few conglomerates with whom he was reportedly on good terms.

The Vice-Premier also demanded that the corporations return the loans to the People's Bank of China before the end of this year.

It is believed that Mr Zhu gets on better with the governor, Zhao Zhihao, who is likely to take over Mr Jiang's position as provincial party secretary.

    Party sources said President Jiang, the putative head of the Shanghai Faction, was lobbying for the promotion of Mr Wu as vice-premier.

If he assumes the portfolio, the former Shanghai party secretary will likely be put in charge of industry and economic development with special responsibility for Shanghai and the Yangtze River estuary.

Political analysts said, however, that Mr Wu's promotion might encounter opposition from regional leaders who feared the ascendancy of the Shanghai Faction.

 The analysts said since there are already four vice-premiers, the addition of two more such senior positions might go against the principle of bureaucratic streamlining.

 However, they said the party's top priority was to strengthen the 'leadership collective' by putting more heavyweight politicians at the centre.

 The party secretariat has also been boosted both in terms of personnel and powers.



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