Communist Party names Wang Hao new chief of scandal-hit Chinese city Xian

The 55-year-old has been transferred from Tangshan in Hebei to take up top job in important economic centre that was vacant for over six months

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Wang Hao has been appointed party secretary of Xian and a member of the Shaanxi provincial leadership. Photo: Sina

Published: 8:45am, 4 Sep 2019Updated: 12:27pm, 4 Sep 2019

The Communist Party has finally named the new party chief of Xian, the biggest city in China’s northwest, filling a position that had been vacant for more than half a year.

Local authorities announced on Tuesday that Wang Hao, who was party boss of Tangshan, an industrial city in Hebei province, had been appointed Xian’s party secretary and a member of the Shaanxi provincial leadership.

Xian, an ancient capital at the eastern end of the old Silk Road, is now the most important economic centre in the country’s northwest and a crucial link in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Its party chief role had been vacant since February, when the previous holder left for another post in northeastern Heilongjiang province.

There had been speculation that the only son of former president Hu Jintao, Hu Haifeng, was in the running for the role. Hu is the party boss of Lishui, a much smaller city in eastern Zhejiang, and a promotion to Xian would have elevated the 46-year-old to vice-ministerial rank and set him up for future career advancement.

But six months later, Wang has instead been transferred from Hebei to fill the role.