China's foreign-exchange chief Guo Shuqing (
Guo, director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) and vice-governor of the central bank, was given the role in an apparent move to improve the bank's image ahead of a planned initial public offer (IPO) abroad.
He was appointed the CCB's Communist Party chief last week, the official Xinhua news agency reported, which cited the bank's board of directors as calling him "a man of strategic vision, strong sense of reform and innovation."
Xinhua said that in becoming chairman he relinquished his roles at the foreign exchange regulator and the central bank.
On Thursday the bank, China's third largest lender, pledged to clean up its operations ahead of a share sale, most likely in Hong Kong, which it hopes will raise between US$5 billion and US$10 billion dollars.
"The Construction Bank will follow the instructions of the China Banking Regulatory Commission and continue to fight against illegal behavior by strengthening its management," a bank spokesman was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
"Internal control will be beefed up in a small number of branches with frequent fraud cases," he said.
Zhang Enzhao resigned for "personal reasons" last week, a day after Hong Kong media reported that he was suspected of corruption and put under house arrest.
His son Zhang Jigang, who goes by his Cantonese name Cheung Kei-kong, has since disappeared from his investment banking job at global banking giant HSBC in Hong Kong, reports have said.
A US lawsuit filed in December claims his education in the UK was financed by bribes accepted by his father.
In the California lawsuit, mainland consultancy and services firm Grace and Digital Information Technology accuse Zhang of having accepted US$1 million in bribes from American supplier Alltel Information Services.
Xinhua cited Guo as saying he would "work closely with the whole bank and make efforts to continuously push forward the bank's reform and development, and build the CCB into a modern commercial bank with an international competitive edge."
Doubts about corporate governance at the bank -- and at others also planning to list such as Bank of China -- have increased recently after a series of fraud scandals costing millions of dollars.
Reports emerged last month that US$8 million had gone missing from one of the CCB's branches in northeastern Jilin Province, along with one or two bank officials.
China hopes the listings will force the banks to become more accountable to the public and less dependent on state funds for help.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary