New Beijing mayor chosen as city prepares for Olympics
BEIJING (AP) - The newly selected mayor of China's ever-expanding capital wants to improve living conditions for laid-off workers and build a "clean and honest government'' as the city prepares for the 2008 Olympic Games, state media reported Monday.
Meng Xuenong was chosen to be Beijing's new mayor Sunday during the city's 10th People's Congress.
He replaces Liu Qi, who presided over the city's successful bid for the Olympics and was named in November as a member of the Communist Party's new Politburo, the second-highest body of power in China.
After his selection, Meng "pledged the municipal government will focus on further using scientific decision-making processes, maintaining a clean and honest government and ensuring the qualification of civil servants,'' the Web site of the Communist Party newspaper People's Daily said Monday.
"The foremost issue ... is to improve the living conditions of low-income earners in urban and rural areas, and assist laid-off workers to find new jobs,'' Meng was paraphrased as saying by the state-controlled newspaper China Daily.
His portfolio includes the city and a large rural region that surrounds it.
Construction, transportation, environmental protection, cultural and historic relics preservation and economic and social development issues are also on his agenda, People's Daily said.
Meng inherits a city which has seen a flurry of building and demolition since it won the Olympic bid in 2001, a great source of pride as China continues its efforts to open to the world.
A multibillion-dollar program is under way to build 16 new stadiums and gymnasiums for Olympic competitors, add 500 kilometers (310 miles) to the city's expressways and 41 kilometers (25 miles) to the existing 54 kilometers (34 miles) of subway line.
But with all that construction comes problems. Luxury housing that sold well in previous years is no longer a rarity, leaving Beijing with many sparsely occupied buildings, even newly constructed ones.
Eight others, including one woman, were elected vice mayors of Beijing at the congress Sunday, Xinhua said.
Other regional officials were installed across China during the weekend in what People's Daily called part of a "new team of younger and better-educated provincial leaders.''
They included the governors of Tibet, Hebei province in northern China, Henan and Hunan provinces in central China and the southern region of Guangxi. - AP
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