The former head of China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS),
Qiu Xiaohua, is suspected of involvement in the Shanghai social
security fund fraud and is being investigated by disciplinary
departments, a NBS spokesman said yesterday.
Li Xiaochao, the newly-appointed NBS spokesman, said at the
bureau's quarterly press conference that Qiu was found to "have
seriously violated disciplines" in the Shanghai social security
fund case. The issue made headlines in September and led to the
stunning ousting of Chen Liangyu from his post of secretary of the
Shanghai municipal committee of the Communist Party of China
(CPC).
Dismissed from his post of NBS director on October 12, Qiu had
only been installed seven months earlier.
Born in 1958, Qiu is a native of southeast China's Fujian Province. He graduated from the
Department of Economics of Xiamen University in 1982. He went on to
serve as chief economist and NBS spokesman between 1993 and 1998
and was appointed deputy director in 1999.
Xie Fuzhan, previously deputy director of the Development
Research Center of the State Council, was appointed new NBS
director. Upon making his first public speech at a symposium on
October 13, Xie promised self-discipline and that the NBS would
redouble its efforts to "improve the Party's work style and build a
clean government."
(Xinhua News Agency October 20, 2006)