CPC continues reshuffling at the top

The Communist Party of China has named a senior official with rich experience in media management as the new head of its publicity department, and appointed one of its most senior female leaders to be Party chief of the northern port city of Tianjin.

Liu Qibao will leave his position as Party chief of Southwest China's Sichuan province to take over as head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, according to a decision made by the CPC Central Committee announced on Wednesday.

He has replaced Liu Yunshan, who has been elected to the seven-person Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

Wang Dongming, head of the State Commission Office for Public Sector Reform, took the post of Party secretary of Sichuan, according to the decision.

Meanwhile, Sun Chunlan, the 62-year-old Party chief of East China's Fujian province, takes over Tianjin, a municipality trying to turn itself into a regional financial center, according to the decision of the CPC Central Committee on Wednesday.

She replaces Zhang Gaoli, another new member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

The reshuffling of key Party positions has taken place three days in a row, and analysts said more changes are expected in the near future, as the once-every-five-year national Party congress last week elected a new generation of leaders.

Liu Qibao, 59, who has a master's degree in economics, started his professional life from the grassroots in Anhui province. He has rich experience working in publicity departments and the Communist Youth League, according to an official biography. From 1993 to 1994, he served as deputy editor-in-chief of the People's Daily.

Sun is one of the only two women in the newly elected 25-member Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, and the only female Party secretary of a provincial-level region in the country. She led local and national trade unions before being appointed Party chief of Fujian in 2009.