Sacked NBS chief linked to pension scandal
By Huan Xin and Zheng Hua (China Daily) Updated: 2006-10-20 07:15
China's former top statistician, Qiu Xiaohua, is suspected of involvement in
the Shanghai pension fund fraud, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said
yesterday.
In the first official explanation for Qiu's sudden sacking a week ago, NBS
spokesman Li Xiaochao yesterday told a news briefing that the 48-year-old former
bureau chief was being investigated.
Commissioner of the National Bureau
of Statistics Qiu Xiaohua gestures during an interview at the Reuters
China Century Summit in Beijing in this September 5, 2006 file photo.
[Reuters] | An investigation into the Shanghai
social security fund scandal found that Qiu was "suspected of severely violating
disciplines," Li said.
The pension fund scandal led to the sacking of the municipality's top Party
official Chen Liangyu last month.
The State Council removed Qiu from the NBS post on October 12, replacing him
with Xie Fuzhan, former deputy director of the Development Research Centre of
the State Council, a cabinet think tank.
Qiu had taken up the post only seven months earlier.
Qiu, 48, graduated from the Economics Department of Xiamen University in
1982.
He served as chief economist and NBS spokesman between 1993 and 1998 and was
appointed deputy director in 1999 before being elevated to director in March.
In Shanghai, a massive corruption probe seems to have widened to the sporting
world after the head of the city's Formula One (F1) Grand Prix Circuit was
reportedly summoned for questioning this week.
Yu Zhifei, general manager of Shanghai International Circuit Co, which hosts
the Chinese Grand Prix, was being questioned mainly because the race track was
built earlier this decade without requisite permission from the Ministry of Land
and Resources, Shanghai Securities News reported yesterday, citing unnamed
sources.
The Shanghai track had a price tag of about US$350 million, including
associated costs, making it the world's most expensive F1 raceway.
Company officials declined to comment on the report
yesterday.
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