Deputy Central Banker

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Du Jinfu, a former assistant to the governor of the People's Bank of China (PBC), China's central bank, has been appointed the bank's vice governor.

Du, 55, joined the central bank in 1992 as head of research at the PBC's Inner Mongolia branch. He was promoted to assistant governor in June 2006, after heading the central bank's statistics and personnel departments. He received a PhD in economics from the Graduate School of the PBC in 1992, majoring in money and banking.

The State Council also announced on June 18 it was removing PBC vice governors Su Ning and Zhu Min from office.

Su, 63, began to serve as vice governor of the PBC in November 2003. He may be appointed chairman of the China UnionPay Data Co., operator of the country's bankcard payment network, Caijing magazine reported on May 19, citing anonymous sources.

Zhu, 58, became PBC vice governor in October 2009. He was named as a special advisor to the managing director of the International Monetary Fund in February.

World Nursing Chief

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Eric Chan Lu-sek joined the World Health Organization (WHO) in Switzerland on June 21 as its chief scientist in nursing and midwifery. He is the second medical expert from Hong Kong to take up a senior post at the UN body to help improve international public health. Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun from Hong Kong is the incumbent WHO director general.

Chan worked in Australia between 1978 and 1993 in frontline and administrative posts before he returned to Hong Kong to work for the Hospital Authority. One of his achievements in Australia was to help the country upgrade nurse training to university level. He was a senior planning manager at Hong Kong's Hospital Authority before taking up the WHO post. He had advised the WHO on nursing and midwifery management since 1995.

In his new post with the WHO, Chan is tasked with three missions--human resources training, establishing standards for nurse training, and coordinating the six global regions to adopt those training standards.

Sacked Official

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Zhang Jingli, Deputy Director of China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), had been sacked and put under investigation for suspected disciplinary violations, said sources with the Communist Party of China Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Zhang, 55, became deputy director of SFDA in 2003. He is the highest-ranking SFDA official to be investigated for corruption since 2007 when Zheng Xiaoyu, former chief of the drug safety watchdog, was executed after being convicted of taking 6.49 million yuan ($954,412) in bribes and dereliction of duty.

Beijing-based business weekly, The Economic Observer, said Zhang was found to have engaged in bribery involving pharmaceutical firms including the Shanghai branch of Johnson & Johnson. Johnson & Johnson declined to comment.

Only months ago, five of Zhang's former colleagues and subordinates at the SFDA were arrested on graft charges.