Posts left vacant by graft probes now filled

Sixty-one ministerial-level officials in 26 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have been reassigned to new government posts to fill gaps left by predecessors who are under investigation for corruption.

The personnel changes have been announced in the just-concluded two sessions in the provinces. The two sessions also ended in Shanghai and Shanxi province but saw no reshuffles.

The two sessions of Hainan, Guangdong and Jilin provinces will start later this month.

A large number of government officials have been caught in China's drastic anti-corruption campaign since it was launched in 2012.

Last year, China intensified its anti-corruption efforts as more senior officials, including Zhou Yongkang, security chief, and Ling Jihua, minister of the United Front Work Department of the CPC Central Committee, were investigated.

The campaign caused the removal of a large number of deputy heads of provincial legislatures, the provinces' top political advisory body.

Shanxi province, which has both deputy heads being investigated, has not appointed new officials to take the positions.

While Ling Zhengce, vice-chairman of Shanxi People's Political Consultative Conference, was investigated in June by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the country's top anti-graft agency, Jin Daoming, vice-chairman of the Shanxi Provincial People's Congress, was placed under investigation by the Supreme People's Procuratorate in December.

With the exception of Shanxi province, other provinces and municipalities, including Shaanxi, Liaoning, Anhui and Hunan, have all filled their vacant government posts, the result of anti-graft investigations, during the local two sessions.

Ke Zunping, deputy Party chief of Sichuan province, has been appointed as chairman of the Sichuan Provincial People's Political Consultative Conference, a post that remained unoccupied for more than a year.

Li Chongxi, who held the post before Ke, was investigated by the CCDI in December 2013.

Until now, out of 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, only Guangdong province has yet to fill the post of chairman of the provincial committee of the CPPCC.

Zhu Mingguo, the former chairman, was investigated for serious violations of Party discipline in November.