XI JINPING, 54, former No. 1 of Zhejiang Province, was appointed Shanghai Party secretary by the Central Committee of the CPC on Saturday with Mayor Han Zheng being relieved of his position of acting Party secretary.

Xi pledged to run a clean government at a meeting after his appointment, saying “I will do my best to do more good things for Shanghai People.”

Xi, born in Beijing, graduated from Qinghua University with a doctorate in law.

Xi, now a member of the 16th CPC Central Committee, has worked in four provinces — Shaanxi, Hebei, Fujian and Zhejiang. He was previously governor of Fujian before going to Zhejiang in 2002.

He became Party secretary of the CPC Zhejiang Committee in November 2002 and was elected director of the Standing Committee of the Zhejiang Provincial People’s Congress in January 2003.

Han was appointed acting Party chief of Shanghai after the city’s top leader Chen Liangyu was removed from his post for his involvement in the Shanghai social security fund scandal, which involved misappropriation of more than 3 billion yuan (US$384 million) in funds.

Zhao Hongzhu, 60, deputy head of the Organization Department of the Central Committee of the CPC, replaced Xi as Party chief of Zhejiang Province while Zhang Gaoli, 61, Party chief of Shandong Province, was appointed Party chief of Tianjin.

Zhang spent most of his time in Guangdong Province, serving as deputy governor, Party chief of Shenzhen and deputy Party chief of Guangdong Province before he was transferred to Shandong.(Li Jing)