Beijing, Dec. 30 -- Li Shenglin, former vice-Minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, was appointed Minister of Communications by the top legislature yesterday.

    Li, 59, replaced Zhang Chunxian, who was appointed secretary of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China earlier.

Li Shenglin (File photo)

    Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) passed the new appointment at a session, which closed yesterday.

    Li worked at a tractor plant in North China's Tianjin Municipality after graduation from college in 1970, Xinhua News Agency reported.

    He became deputy secretary-general of the Tianjin municipal government in 1983. He was appointed vice-mayor of Tianjin in 1991 and mayor in 1998.

    Li was appointed vice-minister of the then State Economic and Trade Commission in 2002, and vice-minister of the National Development and Reform Commission in 2003.

    Also at the 19th session of the Standing Committee of the 10th NPC, Huang Zhendong, former Party Secretary of Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality, was appointed vice-chairman of the Committee for Internal and Judicial Affairs of NPC.

    Yang Zhengwu, former Party Secretary of Central China's Hunan Province, was appointed vice-chairman of the Finance and Economy Committee of NPC.

    Song Fatang, former Party Secretary of Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province was appointed vice-chairman of the Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Committee of NPC.

    Three other vice-chairmen of two special committees of NPC were also appointed yesterday.

    Meanwhile, Wang Wanbin and Liu Zhenwei were appointed as deputy secretary-generals of the NPC Standing Committee yesterday.

(Source: China Daily)