End of an era for mayor who survived Bo Xilai scandal and oversaw Chongqing’s economic boom
Huang Qifan was once tipped for high office, but he has quit as Chongqing’s mayor and sources suggest he may be heading for a relatively low-key post in the national legislature
For 15 years, Huang Qifan stood at or near the helm of Chongqing’s government, helping steer the megacity through the rapids of economic growth.
The agile technocrat was also a political survivor, riding out one of the country’s biggest political scandals in decades to be tipped for even higher office in the central government.
But that all changed yesterday with state media confirming a South China Morning Post report that Huang, 64, had stepped down as the municipality’s mayor. Sources told the Post that the former Communist Party rising star was expected to move to a relatively low-profile position on one of the sub committees under the National People’s Congress.
During time in Chongqing, Huang served with six party secretaries, including Bo Xilai, who was jailed for life three years ago for bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power.
Huang was known as the architect of economic growth in the “Chongqing model”, which highlighted state control of land and development projects. But the political side of the model under Bo’s tenure soon caused alarm among reformers in the central government, with its promotion of revolutionary songs harking back to the Mao Zedong era and a crackdown on crime.
