Up to 20 Shanghai cadres are expected to be transferred to Beijing in one of the most extensive reshuffles in the post-Deng Xiaoping era.
And at least 30 per cent of the heads of government ministries, provinces and major cities will be retiring soon after the 15th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party scheduled for late next year.
Chinese sources said yesterday President and party General Secretary Jiang Zemin had taken charge of personnel matters in the run-up to the congress. They said Mr Jiang would convene the seventh plenum of the 14th Central Committee early next year to finalise the changes.
'The President recently looked at the dossiers of around 20 young turks in party and government units in Shanghai,' a source said. 'These rising stars, in their early to mid-40s, are tipped to move into key slots in Beijing next year.' A Western diplomat in Shanghai said the President, a former party boss of Shanghai, had visited the city to make a first-hand assessment of these up-and-coming cadres.
Apart from refusing to allow retirements to be postponed, routine in the cadre system, the President has insisted on more frequent rotations of cadres among the provinces, or between Beijing and the regions.
'To undermine regionalism, Jiang does not want cadres to stay in one province or city for too long,' the source said.
