Suzhou party chief to replace ousted Shenzhen mayor

Published on June 21, 2009 by brooks | This story has been viewed 244 views

HONG KONG, June 12 (Reuters) – The well-connected Communist Party Secretary of the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou will replace the ousted mayor of Shenzhen Xu Zongheng, a state television station reported on Friday.

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Speculation had swirled in recent days that Wang Rong, now fast-rising Party chief of Suzhou with pro-business credentials would replace Shenzhen’s ousted mayor Xu.

Shenzhen Television confirmed the high-level reshuffle in its noon news broadcast. Wang will become Shenzhen’s deputy party secretary, a post previously held by Xu.

Wang, a former scholar who had a stint at Tilburg university in the Netherlands, will become one of the most senior party officials to take up the mayorship of Shenzhen.

A special economic zone of 8 million people that led China’s economic reforms and opened around 30 years ago, Shenzhen lies at the heart of China’s export engine of the Pearl River Delta.

Wang is believed to be close to Li Yuanchao, a member of China’s Politburo, the country’s elite, most powerful decision-making body.

Xu was detained around a week ago as part of an investigation into “serious disciplinary violations”, the official Xinhua news agency said on Thursday. [ID:nSP4968866]

Local media reported he had links with billionaire Huang Guangyu, the former head of China’s top consumer appliances retailer GOME (0493.HK) who is being investigated for financial irregularities.

A spreading corruption investigation in Guangdong and the Pearl River Delta has ensnared a number of senior officials in recent months, and is seen by analysts as an attempt by Beijing to bring the free-wheeling southern economic powerhouse under it greater influence.

The swift replacement of Xu hints at a longstanding power struggle with other factions in the region including Beijing-backed Party Secretary Wang Yang who has been aggressive in imposing his influence on the region’s future industrial development and politics, which have long been controlled by powerful local cliques.

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