Wang Yong , an obscure name before this week, has found himself in the hot seat as the new chief of China's beleaguered product and food safety watchdog, in the wake of the snowballing toxic milk scandal.
The 53-year-old Liaoning native was named deputy minister of the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission in 2003 and promoted to deputy secretary general of the State Council six months ago.
From Monday, the little-known bureaucrat was suddenly put into one of the nation's most controversial ministerial-level posts. He had climbed the ladder from deputy director of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp's political department to head of state enterprise staff in the Central Committee of the Communist Party's organisation department.
His predecessor Li Changjiang resigned on Monday over the tainted dairy products found in almost all big brands. Mr Li had been in the spotlight over contaminated goods ranging from toxic eel in Hong Kong in 2005 to tainted pet food and toothpaste in the west last year.
The beleaguered General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, heavily criticised by China's netizens for corruption and incompetence, is again in the eye of the storm after melamine was added to raw milk across the industry for over three years.
Public pressure was one of the reasons Mr Li, who served in President Hu Jintao's power base, the Youth League, in the 1980s, resigned. Since the Sanlu milk scandal surfaced, internet chat rooms have been filled with messages calling for his resignation.
Beijing-based lawyer Zhou Ze said he wrote an open letter calling for Mr Li's resignation after the Sanlu scandal broke.
