The Chinese Communist Party has appointed Yu Zhengsheng (
Yu, 62, formerly the party secretary of Hubei Province, takes over from Xi Jinping (
Yu will be replaced as party secretary of the CCP's Hubei Provincial Committee by Luo Qingquan (
Seen as a compromise candidate to satisfy rival political factions in Beijing, Yu takes the reins of China's biggest metropolis after a multi-million dollar corruption scandal tarnished the party.
The case, involving the misuse of US$480 million from Shanghai's social security fund that wound up in real estate and road investment projects, led to the firing of former city party boss Chen Liangyu (
At least 20 other officials and businessmen were implicated in the year-long scandal that led to the appointment in March of Xi, then the party boss of Zhejiang, and a man respected for his management skills.
Yu, once mayor of Qingdao, may not have the same managerial credibility as Xi, but he is expected to continue to obediently pursue the economic development goals of President Hu Jintao (
Said to be friendly with Hu's so-called Communist League faction and ex-president Jiang Zemin's (江澤民) "Shanghai gang," Yu is expected to keep the city's US$100 billion economy on a more even keel after years of breakneck growth.
Yu, trained as a ballistic missiles engineer, is a so-called "princeling," who, like many other high-ranking politicians today, can thank his family's communist pedigree for at least part of his political success.
However, his family also almost ruined him.
His career was nearly destroyed when his brother, Yu Qiangsheng (
"He is quite an exceptional candidate in that he survived his brother's defection," said Joseph Cheng (鄭宇碩), a China political analyst at Hong Kong's City University.
Yu's family was persecuted in the 1970s because his father had once been married to Mao Zedong's (毛澤東) fourth wife, Jiang Qing (江青), who was blamed for many of the horrors of the Cultural Revolution.
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
MORE BANS: Australia last year required sites to remove accounts held by under-16s, with a few countries pushing for similar action at an EU level and India considering its own ban Indonesia on Friday said it would ban social media access for children under 16, citing threats from online pornography, cyberbullying, online fraud and Internet addiction. “Accounts belonging to children under 16 on high-risk platforms will start to be deactivated, beginning with YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live and Roblox,” Indonesian Minister of Communications and Digital Meutya Hafid said. “The government is stepping in so that parents no longer have to fight alone against the giants of the algorithm. Implementation will begin on March 28, 2026,” she said. The social media ban would be introduced in stages “until all platforms fulfill their
RSS