China names Beijing mayor Chen Jining new party boss of Shanghai

Chen Jining, a former president of Tsinghua University, will now be in charge of a financial hub of 25 million people. - Xinhua

BEIJING (Bloomberg): China has named Beijing Mayor Chen Jining the new Communist Party leader of Shanghai, a move that comes as the Asian nation reshuffles key leaders following a congress that President Xi Jinping used to consolidate power.

Chen replaces Li Qiang as party secretary of the financial hub of 25 million people, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Friday (Oct 28).

Li was chosen by Xi as the No. 2 official in China’s hierarchy despite his oversight of a strict two-month lockdown of the financial hub, when some people had trouble getting food and medicine. Li would no longer serve as Shanghai’s party leader, the brief Xinhua report said. In China’s opaque system of government, a party secretary of a city has more sway than its mayor.

Chen, 58, was named to the 24-member Politburo at the twice-a-decade party congress that ended last weekend. That event saw Xi set himself up for more time in power and stack both the Politburo and the more powerful Politburo Standing Committee with loyalists to a degree that rattled markets.

Chen was named acting mayor of the Chinese capital in 2017 after serving as president of Tsinghua University and environment minister.

In 2018, he announced plans to improve Beijing’s air quality, which had become a source of public concern due to periods of severe pollution. Those efforts have paid dividends, as natural gas replaced coal in home heating and industrial use.