China's Top Statistician Fired Due to Shanghai Probe (Update2)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ab_d5u8YILpE&refer=worldwide
By Douglas Wong
Oct. 19 (Bloomberg) -- China said its top statistician Qiu Xiaohua was fired because he was linked to
misuse of Shanghai's state pension fund, a scandal which has already brought down the city's party
chief Chen Liangyu.
``During the probe into the Shanghai pension fund corruption case, relevant government departments
found the former statistics bureau director is involved in serious violation of discipline,'' National
Bureau of Statistics spokesman Li Xiaochao told a press conference in Beijing today.
Qiu, 48, was appointed in March and removed from his post last week by the State Council, China's
cabinet, without any explanation. He is being investigated by the Communist Party's Central
Commission for Discipline Inspection, Li said today. Today's announcement is the first time Qiu's
dismissal has been linked to the case.
Shanghai Party Secretary Chen was fired last month, the highest-ranking party official to be dismissed
in more than a decade. The crackdown signals that President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao want to
tackle corruption that is heightening social tensions in the world's fastest-growing major economy.
Chen, a member of China's 24-member political bureau, the government's highest policy-making body,
was removed from all Communist Party and government posts. He was implicated in appropriating
social welfare funds for the benefit of relatives and making illegal profits for the owners of some illicit
companies, the commission said in announcing his dismissal on Sept. 25.
Stanford Scholar
Qiu, a graduate of Xiamen University in southern China, attended Stanford University as a visiting
scholar from 1996 to 1997. As head of the statistics bureau, he was a member of the People's Bank of
China monetary policy committee that advises the government on monetary policy including interest
rate changes and the exchange rate.
He was replaced by Xie Fuzhan, a deputy director of the State Council's State Development Research
Center.
The central government sent more than 100 investigators from Beijing to probe the Shanghai pension
case, according to state media. The scandal became public on Aug. 11 when the government- owned
People's Daily said that Zhu Junyi, head of Shanghai's social security bureau, was fired for allegedly
taking bribes and embezzling as much as 3.2 billion yuan ($404 million) from the city's pension fund.
At least 16 billion yuan of China's national social security fund, valued at more than 1.8 trillion yuan in
2005, has been embezzled since 1998, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Sept. 15.
To contact the reporter on this story: Douglas Wong in Hong Kong at dwong19@bloomberg.net .
Last Updated: October 19, 2006 00:42 EDT