GUANGZHOU -- Ma Xingrui was appointed acting governor of South China's Guangdong province on Friday.

Ma was also named deputy governor of the province at a session of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress, which accepted the request of Zhu Xiaodan to leave the post of governor.

Ma is currently deputy secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the secretary of the CPC Shenzhen City Committee.