Shanghai leader stripped of power
By Xing Zhigang (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-09-26 10:35 The last Politburo member to be axed for corruption was former Beijing Party
secretary Chen Xitong, who resigned in mid-1995 and was sentenced to 16 years in
prison.
Chen Liangyu was last seen in public on Friday night at the Shanghai Golden
Grand Prix Athletics meeting, watching Olympic hero Liu Xiang triumph in the 110
metres hurdles.
He 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 assumed the posts of Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of
the CPC and member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee in 2002.
Tens of thousands of online comments flooded sina.com, the country's largest
news portal, welcoming Chen Liangyu's sacking.
"We give our firm support for President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao in
their battle against corruption," one anonymous netizen said.
"Justice still prevails in our country," another wrote. "Such news is even
more encouraging than the launch of Shenzhou VI (manned spacecraft)."
Professor Gao Xinmin of the CPC Central Party School said Chen's case sounded
another alarm in the country's anti-corruption bid.
"Corruption involving such a senior official as Chen suggests our fight
against graft still has a long way to go," she told China Daily.
"We need tougher and more effective measures to supervise top local officials
whose power seems to have become boundless." The professor stressed that the
Party should focus on improving government governance mechanisms and selection
procedures of senior officials in a bid to root out corruption.
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