BEIJING (Reuters) - A disgraced ally of outgoing Chinese President Hu Jintao was given a new role on Monday as a vice chairman of a largely ceremonial advisory body to parliament, as a way of sparing Hu from embarrassment before he retires.
Ling Jihua, 56, was demoted in September as head of the Communist Party's powerful General Office of the Central Committee, a secretive body that is the organisational cockpit of the party's top leaders, after reports his son was killed in a car crash involving a luxury sports car last March.