Senior Beijing city health official sacked amid capital’s Covid battle
- Yu Luming’s removal as director of the city’s health commission appears to be linked to a corruption probe rather than the current wave of cases
- Last month the country’s top anti-corruption watchdog announced that he had been placed under investigation for ‘serious violations of discipline and laws’
A top Beijing health official has been sacked for “serious violations of discipline and laws” as the Chinese capital continued to battle the latest wave of Covid-19 cases.
The removal of Yu Luming, 60, as director of Beijing’s municipal health commission was apparently not related to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic as the Communist Party’s top anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, announced last month that he was under investigation.
On Wednesday the official Beijing Daily newspaper reported that he had been stripped of his role at the health commission and as vice-chairman of the Beijing committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference – a top political advisory body.
The authorities have not released further details of his alleged crimes but “serious violations of discipline and laws” is a widely used euphemism for corruption or political mistakes.
The Beijing committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference also announced the removal of Wei Yongxiang, director of the Affiliated Children’s Hospital of Capital Institute of Paediatrics, also for “serious violations of discipline and laws”. The announcement did not say if their cases were related.
Yu, a psychiatrist by profession, joined the Communist Party in 1992 and was appointed to his post in the capital’s health commission in November 2020.
