New Party chief appointed in Shenmu county

A new Party chief was appointed in Shenmu county, Shaanxi province on Friday.

Yu Jundong, deputy Party chief of Yulin city, will serve as Shenmu's Party chief, according to the decision made by Shaanxi provincial committee and Yulin city committee of the Communist Party of China.

Yu, 45, graduated from Xi'an Jiaotong University with a PhD in management, took the post of deputy Party chief of Yulin in June.

Lei Zhengxi will no longer be Party chief of Shenmu, the announcement also said.

Lei, 53, who worked in Shenmu from September 2010 to July 2013, was appointed a member of the standing committee of Yulin city Party committee.

On July 15, thousands of local people who learned that Lei was going to leave the county gathered in front of the county government office building to ask Lei to explain the hearsay about his corruption. Official county sources later said that the hearsay was a rumor and four suspects who spread it were detained by police.

The authorities did not mention Lei's position on the standing committee of Yulin Party committee.

Coal-rich Shenmu county, with a population of 400,000, offers free medical care and 15 years of free education.

The county has made a fortune with its more than 50 billion tons of coal reserves.

As coal prices have dropped significantly in the past year, local financial revenue in the first quarter of this year dropped by 1.4 percent to 1.28 billion yuan ($210 million), according to a Xinhua News Agency report.