Chen Jining arrived in Shanghai on Thursday evening and an announcement is expected on Friday, according to sources.
« : »Beijing mayor Chen Jining is set to be promoted to Communist Party chief of Shanghai, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the matter. Chen arrived in Shanghai on Thursday evening, with an announcement on the appointment expected on Friday, the sources said. The 58-year-old is an environmental scientist who studied at Tsinghua University, and also has a doctorate from Imperial College London. His appointment to the top job in one of China’s economic powerhouses is seen as part of President Xi Jinping ’s strategy to put people with strong scientific backgrounds in key positions. Six of the 13 new members of the Politburo have strong science and tech backgrounds. It will also be an important move for Chen’s political career – the Shanghai party secretary post usually paves the way for further elevation to the Politburo Standing Committee. Xi himself is an example of this. Chen stayed on as a research associate at Imperial College London after obtaining a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering in 1993. He moved to Beijing in 1998, taking up the role of vice-dean of Tsinghua University’s Department of Environmental Science and Engineering in 1998. He became the university’s vice-president in 2006, then its president in 2012.
