Education Chief Replaced

Yuan Guiren (above), a philosophy professor, has replaced Zhou Ji as China's minister of education. The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, the country's top legislature, made the appointment on October 31.

Yuan, 59, has spent his whole career in education. He began teaching at a middle school in his hometown, Guzhen County in

Anhui Province, at age 19. After graduating from Beijing Normal University in 1984 with a master's degree, he worked at the school and rose to be its president in 1999. Since 2001, Yuan had served as a vice minister of education.

Zhou, who assumed the post of minister of education in 2003, was declared deputy Party chief of the Chinese Academy of Engineering on November 2.

A 63-year-old computer scientist, Zhou received his doctorate from the University of Buffalo in the United States in 1984. He became president of Huazhong University of Science and Technology located in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in 1997 and was elected to the board of the Chinese Academy of Engineering in 1999.

Graft Investigator

Chen Lianfu, a veteran prosecuting attorney, has been named director general of the General Administration for Combating Embezzlement and Bribery under the Supreme People's Procuratorate.

Chen, 56, was director general of the Prosecutorial Department for Dereliction of Duty and Infringement of Citizens' Rights under the Supreme People's Procuratorate before taking over the country's top anti-graft body.

Sources with the Supreme People's Procuratorate attributed Chen's appointment partly to his rich experience in investigating power-for-money deals. Chen oversaw the department for combating embezzlement and bribery under the Jilin Provincial People's Procuratorate when he served as deputy procuratorial chief of the northeastern province years ago.

The General Administration for Combating Embezzlement and Bribery under the Supreme People's Procuratorate was established in 1995. Chen is its fourth director general.

Crime Boss Gets Jail

Xie Caiping, the only female gang leader to be apprehended in the southwest Chinese city of Chongqing's recent crackdown on organized crime, was sentenced to 18 years in prison on November 3. She was also fined 1.02 million yuan ($149,430) by the No.5 Intermediate People's Court of Chongqing.

Xie was convicted of organizing and leading a criminal organization, running gambling dens, illegal imprisonment, harboring people taking illegal narcotics and giving bribes to officials. Since September 2004, her gang had made 2 million yuan ($293,000) in illegal earnings by running more than 10 gambling dens and harboring those who took drugs, the court heard.

Xie, a former tax official, is the sister-in-law of Wen Qiang, the highest-ranking official to be arrested in the anti-gang campaign. Wen was deputy director of the Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Public Security and director of the city's Bureau of Justice. Xie was found to have taken advantage of Wen's power and manipulated other police officers to cover up her illegal business.