Tianjin's deputy mayor named Guangzhou's new Party chief

The central government recently appointed Tianjin Deputy Mayor Ren Xuefeng as a member of the standing committee of the Guangdong provincial Party committee and Party chief of Guangzhou, the provincial capital, the Guangdong Party Organization Department said on Wednesday.

Ren, 48, replaces his sacked predecessor, Wan Qingliang.

The Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee announced in late June that Wan had been dismissed from his post and placed under further investigation for suspected "serious violations of discipline and laws".

With a population of more than 16 million, Guangzhou is the third-largest city in terms of GDP ranking, after Beijing and Shanghai.

Ren, a native of Xingtai, Hebei province, had been deputy mayor of the northern port city of Tianjin since January 2008. He was Party chief and chairman of a State-owned company in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region before he was promoted to Tianjin deputy mayor.

Ren, graduated from Hebei University of Technology in 1988, is a senior engineer and holds a doctoral degree.

Ren joined the Communist Party of China in July 1985 when he was still a university student.