CCP graft-busting trio sent to three major cities

China's leaders have parachuted top graft busters into its biggest cities to beef up an anti-corruption drive that has already claimed a raft of high-profile scalps, state press reported yesterday.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has named three senior cadres to head up anti-graft drives in Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, the China Daily said.

"The reshuffle highlights the top leadership's concerns over the anti-corruption situation in these key areas," the paper quoted Li Chengyan, a professor at Peking University, as saying.

The former vice president of the nation's highest court, Shen Deyong, was sent to Shanghai, where a graft scandal involving the city's pension funds led to the downfall of the metropolis' former CCP chief Chen Liangyu (陳良宇) in September. About US$400 billion is missing from the pension funds.

Ma Zhiping (馬志平), a leading official in the CCP's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, was named to head anti-graft work in Beijing, while Zang Xianfu was deployed to Tianjin, the paper said.

Li said the appointments were equivalent to "parachuting" the graft busters to cities where hundreds of investigators had already been dispatched to collect evidence in wide-ranging corruption scandals there.

Liu Zhihua (劉志華), a former Beijing vice mayor, was sacked for graft in June, the paper said.

In Tianjin, Li Baojin (李寶金), the former top prosecutor and deputy police chief, was expelled from the ruling party last month amid accusations of bribery and embezzlement.