Chen Liangyu, secretary of the Shanghai
Municipal Committee of Communist Party of China (CPC), has been sacked for his involvement in a
social security fund scandal.
Chen was also suspended from the posts of
member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and
member of the CPC Central Committee, said a decision by the CPC
Central Committee published on Monday.
Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng has been appointed the acting
secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the CPC by the CPC
Central Committee.
The Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee convened a
meeting on Sunday and discussed a preliminary investigation report
on Chen's problems, which was tabled by the CPC Central Commission
for Discipline Inspection.
The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection is
investigating Chen's case.
According to the preliminary investigation, Chen was also
involved in other discipline violations, such as "helping further
the economic interests of illegal business people, protecting staff
who severely violated laws and discipline, furthering the interests
of family members by taking advantage of his official posts".
The CPC Central Committee held that its investigation into Chen
and his subsequent punishment "demonstrated the CPC's resolution to
build a clean Party and to fight corruption".
"Whoever it is, no matter how high their positions are, anyone
who violates Party rules or national law will be severely
investigated and punished," the committee said in the press
release.
The CPC Central Committee warned that "all Party members,
especially senior leaders, must have a clear awareness of the
far-reaching, complex and arduous nature of the fight against
corruption", and urged them to maintain propriety in their lives,
authority, social status and personal interests.
It reminded them to focus on improving their performance, to
guard against temptations of power, money and sex, and to persist
in stringent self-discipline.
Party committees at all levels should strengthen the education
and management of leaders, tighten restrictions and supervision of
authority, and promote a better Party performance, clean and honest
government, and the fight against graft, it said.
The CPC Central Committee said it believed corruption would be
curbed under the leadership of Hu Jintao as general secretary and with joint
efforts of all Party members and the public.
It was also confident of improving the general atmosphere in the
Party and society and pushing ahead the construction of socialism
with Chinese characteristics, the press release said.
Chen was born in October 1946 in Ningbo city, east China's Zhejiang Province. He graduated from the
Architecture Department of the People's Liberation Army (PLA)
Institute of Logistics Engineering where he had majored in
architecture. He joined the CPC in April 1980.
Chen became Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the
CPC and a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central
Committee in 2002.
The corruption involving Shanghai's social security funds has
already felled two Shanghai officials.
Zhu Junyi, director of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Labor
and Social Security, was stripped of his post in August. The
55-year-old city official is suspected of misconduct involving a
3.2-billion-yuan loan of city funds to toll road operator Fuxi
Investment Holding Co.
Also in August, Qin Yu, deputy secretary of the Shanghai's
Baoshan District CPC Committee, was dismissed from the post for
being involved in the misuse of the social security fund.
Earlier reports said more than 100 investigators from Beijing
have gone to Shanghai to probe the corruption case in which money
was siphoned off from Shanghai's social security system, which
manages more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.25 billion) in funds.
Han Zheng, the acting Party chief of Shanghai, born in 1954, is
a native of Cixi, east China's Zhejiang Province. He joined the CPC
in 1979 and was a deputy at the 14th and 15th CPC National
Congresses, and a member of the 16th CPC Central Committee.
Han was elected as deputy party chief of Shanghai in May 2002
and became mayor of Shanghai in February 2003.
Who's Who in China's Leadership
(Xinhua News Agency September 25, 2006)