Shanxi governor Meng Xuenong has resigned after only eight months in office. Reuters reports:
The governor of China’s northern province of Shanxi resigned on Sunday as the death toll from a mudslide caused by the collapse of a mine waste reservoir climbed to 254, state media reported.
Meng Xuenong, who governed Shanxi for a mere eight months, was replaced by Wang Jun, the head of the State Administration of Work Safety, who was named acting governor. Meng had previously been mayor of Beijing, but was sacked in 2004 after city officials attempted to cover up an outbreak of the deadly SARS respiratory illness.
…Meng had arrived in Shanxi just over a year ago, as vice party chief and vice governor, after serving as vice director of water diversion, overseeing a controversial project to bring water from southern rivers to China’s parched north.
