On March 19,  it was announced that Shandong Governor Gong Zheng will be taking over as Deputy Party Secretary in Shanghai. Gong Zheng is likely to soon be appointed Mayor of Shanghai. Shanghai has been without a Mayor since Ying Yong was appointed Party Secretary of Hubei on February 13.

(Comment: 60-year old Gong Zheng is a native of Jiangsu province. He has a PhD in Economics and spent more than 20 years working for China’s customs agency, rising to deputy chief of the General Administration of Customs in 2003. In 2008, he was appointed a Vice Governor of  Zhejiang province and five years later was made Party Secretary of  Hangzhou. He was named Governor of Shandong in 2017. A Hangzhou official described Gong Zheng as an ‘open-minded’ leader.)