Shanghai mayor promoted to city's Party chief

China on Tuesday named a new leader for Shanghai, a day after naming a replacement leader for Chongqing following the departure of disgraced former official Bo Xilai.

Business-friendly Shanghai Mayor Han Zheng, 58, was promoted to the city’s top post as Communist Party chief after serving as mayor since 2003, Xinhua news agency said.

Up-and-coming politician Sun Zhengcai, 49, a former minister of agriculture was named top Communist Party official in Chongqing, Xinhua said in an earlier report.

Han is credited with guiding Shanghai through the successful World Expo in 2010 and he survived a 2006 corruption scandal which sent former Shanghai party chief Chen Liangyu to jail for 18 years.

A native of Zhejiang province which neighbours Shanghai, Han was educated in Shanghai and served his entire political career in the city.

Several candidates were rumoured to be in line for the Shanghai party chief job, but local government officials were keen to have one of their own take the post instead of an outsider, a Shanghai-based political journalist said.

Sun’s promotion is largely based on his expertise in agriculture – a key sector in a country that needs to feed 1.3 billion people.