politics - Baoshan governor investigated

Over a hundred investigators from Beijing have landed in Shanghai to investigate a corruption case against the governor Qin Yu of the Baoshan district in northern Shanghai. According to reports in the Chinese media the governor is investigated for a "severe breach of discipline".

Qin is the second senior city official under investigation after Zhu Junyi, director of the Shanghai Municipal Labour and Social Security Bureau, was reportedly found to have misappropriated 3.2 billion yuan (US$400 million) in public funds.

Qin was elected head of Baoshan District on July 25 after serving as deputy director of the general office of the Shanghai municipal government and secretary to the Shanghai mayor, according to Caijing Magazine.

It is the second case of a top-level shake-out in Shanghai. Earlier also three top-shots of Shanghai Electric Group lost their jobs on the basis of possible fraud with pension funds. Being corrupt is mostly not enough in China to really get into problems and - outside the Chinese media - speculations suggest the central government is trying to get rid of the power base of former president Jiang Zemin in Shanghai.
The bulwark of electricity companies is traditionally also linked to former prime minister Li Peng.