China's Hu stronger as allies promoted

BEIJING, Aug 31 (Reuters) One of Chinese President Hu Jintao's closest aides is tipped for promotion, while an ally who was sacked as Beijing mayor during the 2003 SARS crisis has made a political comeback, signs of the leader's growing strength.

They were part of a reshuffle ahead of the party's 17th congress which opens on October. 15 with Hu expected to promote more of his men to key posts and further consolidate power.

Ling Jihua, 50, deputy director of the General Office of the Communist Party's Central Committee, is expected to replace Wang Gang, 64, as director in the near future, two sources with ties to the leadership said.

''It's a very important job,'' one source told Reuters, adding that it was an indication Hu was politically stronger.

The general office is the party's nerve centre handling classified documents and administrative and logistical affairs of the party's 23-member, decision-making Politburo.

Previous directors of the general office were concurrently alternate members of the Politburo, including Wen Jiabao who is now premier, and Zeng Qinghong, the incumbent vice president.

State media said former Beijing mayor Meng Xuenong, 58, had been appointed deputy party boss of the coal-rich province of Shanxi in northern China.

''Hu does not have a lot of people he can trust,'' a second source said, referring to Meng's comeback.

Yesterday, parliament approved the appointments of new ministers of state security, personnel and supervision.

Analysts said the personnel changes meant more emphasis on Hu's policy of ''scientific development'' to correct China's path from that of the previous administration, which featured breakneck growth at the expense of the environment.

Meng is expected eventually to replace Yu Youjun, 54, as Shanxi governor after the provincial people's congress rubber-stamps his promotion.

A vice minister of the party's organisational department, which is responsible for personnel appointments, told state media Yu would be given an unspecified ''important'' job because the party ''approves of and trusts'' him.

Yu would be named a cabinet minister, the sources said.

Months after Hu took the top job in the Chinese Communist Party in November 2002, China was gripped by SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), a disease that swept through Guangdong province and Hong Kong before spreading globally in 2003. It infected some 8,000 people and killed around 800.

Hu sacked Meng as Beijing mayor and an ally of Hu's predecessor Jiang Zemin as health minister for a covering up and ordered the government to come clean on the epidemic.

Meng was a one-time Beijing deputy secretary of the Communist Youth League, Hu's power base and known as the Communist Party's ''helping hand and reserve army'' and boasts 71.9 million members.

After his stint as Beijing mayor, Meng was appointed deputy head of a multi-billion dollar project to divert water from China's flood-prone south to its parched north.

Shanxi was rocked recently by a slave labour scandal at brick kilns. Police have rescue more than 1,300 victims, including mentally handicapped people, teenagers, children and farmers.

Meanwhile, parliament stripped former Shanghai party boss Chen Liangyu of his last official post after he was fired for graft last year, state media said.

And Zhang Rui, vice mayor of the coastal city of Qingdao which will host sailing events at next year's Beijing Olympics, has been fired and is in detention on suspicion of graft, the Beijing-backed Hong Kong newspaper Ta Kung Pao reported.

REUTERS GL RK1035