Liu Lefei, a senior executive at Citic Securities, China's No 1 brokerage, is set to leave to pursue personal interests, amid growing concern on the mainland about children of top government leaders often taking up important positions at large state-owned enterprises.
People with direct knowledge of the matter told the South China Morning Post yesterday that Liu had resigned as chairman of Beijing-based Citic Private Equity Funds Management, a unit of Citic Securities. Wang Dongming, chairman of the parent company, would temporarily become chairman of both the private equity arm and Citic Securities, which is listed in Hong Kong and Shanghai, the people said.
A spokesman for Citic Securities confirmed to the Post yesterday that Liu had recently stepped down as chairman of the private equity arm but would remain chief executive of the firm. Industry insiders say the arrangement could be temporary and aimed at helping the private equity company through a transitional period, reassuring its investors that it is business as usual.
Liu, 39, is the son of Liu Yunshan, a powerful Communist Party official in charge of ideology and propaganda. The elder Liu is also a member of the Politburo, the party's top leadership group. He is widely tipped to become one of the members of the Politburo Standing Committee - the party's innermost circle of power - in the once-in-a-decade reshuffle of top leadership in autumn.
Some of the older Politburo members will retire, but Liu Yunshan is widely expected to retain his Politburo seat in the new administration.
'I think the message here is clear and important - if you want to keep your day job as a senior government official, perhaps your children would be better to stay away from those key jobs at big state-owned enterprises' to avoid any suggestion of privilege, said one of the people familiar with some of the top leaders' thinking.
