Government and Policy

Jiangsu, Hubei governors promoted to Party chiefs

By Wang Huazhong (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-07 07:55

BEIJING - The booming eastern province of Jiangsu and Central China's economic powerhouse Hubei province both saw their top officials reshuffled on Monday, as the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) appointed two new Party chiefs.

Luo Zhijun, governor of Jiangsu, has been appointed secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the CPC, replacing Liang Baohua.

Luo Zhijun is secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China. [Photo/China Daily]

Li Hongzhong is secretary of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China. [Photo/China Daily]?

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Li Hongzhong, governor of Hubei, has been promoted to secretary of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the CPC, replacing Luo Qingquan.

Their predecessors both turned 65 in November, the standard retirement age for ministerial-level officials in China.

Luo, 59, and Li, 54, are also alternate members of the CPC Central Committee, which will be reshuffled in 2012.

The CPC Central Committee on Monday also nominated two governor candidates to fill in the vacancies.

Wang Guosheng, 54, deputy Party chief of Jiangsu province, was nominated Hubei governor candidate, and 60-year-old Li Xueyong, Party chief of the Ministry of Science and Technology, was named Jiangsu governor candidate.

Ever since Li Hongzhong made headlines for his unexpected response to a female reporter's question about a scandal in Hubei - by grabbing her voice recorder at the sideline of this year's plenary session of the National People's Congress in March - he has become a keen supporter of the media's role in directing public opinion and as a watchdog.

One day after the confrontation he stated that reporting negative news in Hubei should not be feared - so long as the report is objective and balanced.

Li also told more than 30 Internet media gathering in Hubei in June that he requires all levels of government in Hubei to treat media well and support the Internet media's roles in monitoring government decisions, law enforcement and use of power.

Li, from Shandong province, graduated from history department of Jilin University.

In the 1980s, he worked in Beijing at the Ministry of Electronics Industry (now the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology).

Between 2001 and 2007, the jobs he held included deputy governor of South China's Guangdong province, and Party secretary of Shenzhen city, which, at that time, was challenged to see if it could continue spearheading China's economic reform without extra favorable policies.

Then Li began his leading roles as deputy Party secretary and provincial governor in Hubei, a province of 61 million along the middle section of the Yangtze River.

The new Party chief for Jiangsu province, Luo, served in the navy when he was young and then held senior posts in the Communist Youth League of China and in China Youth Daily from 1980 to 1995.

After obtaining a master's degree in politics in 1995, he became vice-mayor, mayor and then the Party chief of Jiangsu province's capital city Nanjing. Luo was appointed governor of Jiangsu in 2008.