CHINA:China's finance minister, Jin Renqing, was removed from his post yesterday and replaced abruptly by a protege of President Hu Jintao following speculation and lurid newspaper reports of improper conduct.
The state council said that Mr Jin had resigned for "personal reasons". While no other reasons were given officially for his departure, there were media reports linking the 63-year-old to a young woman who had also had relations with other senior cadres, including Du Shicheng, the former party secretary of the coastal "boom town" of Qingdao.
Mr Du was dismissed in December for "serious breaches of discipline", a phrase normally used to suggest corruption and moral lapses, including keeping mistresses.
The young woman reportedly told the anti-corruption investigators of other intimate relationships with several senior government officials, some of whom had abused their power to advance her business dealings.
Mr Jin's departure coincides with a jostling for influence in the upper echelons of power in China ahead of the Communist Party congress in October, at which Mr Hu is expected to make a number of key personnel changes to cement his authority.
Significantly, Mr Jin was an ally of former leader Jiang Zemin, whose residual influence in the party Mr Hu hopes to overcome at the forthcoming congress.
Mr Jin has been shifted to a government think-tank and is set to be replaced by Xie Xuren, director of the state administration of taxation.
A number of ministerial changes were announced by the Xinhua news agency yesterday. Other new ministers include Geng Huichang, who replaces Xu Yongyue at the ministry of state security.
The moral standards of senior cadres have come under intense scrutiny during a corruption investigation sweeping the Communist Party, and keeping mistresses and having affairs have been among the main reasons for the recent sackings of senior officials. However, analysts said that improprieties were more than likely just an excuse and that political intrigues were behind Mr Jin's departure.
In the past year Mr Hu has replaced a number of top officials, including former Shanghai party chief Chen Liangyu, who is facing trial for corruption and was yesterday stripped of his final position of authority in the party when he ceased to be a deputy to the national people's congress.
Mr Jin has been finance minister since 2003. Most decisions about financial policy in China are made at top level and central bank vice-governor Su Ning said that ary policy would not be affected by "personnel changes at the finance ministry".
During his four years in the job Mr Jin has overseen a strengthening of China's foreign currency reserves to more than €950 billion.
However, the economy has been close to boiling point and the country's massive trade surplus with the US - which hit €1,72 billion last year - brought significant political pressure to bear on Beijing from Washington.
Previous portfolios Mr Jin has held include: head of the state administration of taxation, vice-governor of the south-western province of Yunnan and vice-mayor of Beijing.