Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Zhang Chunjiang, vice president of the parent of China Mobile Ltd., has been removed from his post for involvement in “serious” economic issues, the Xinhua News Agency reported, citing an unidentified government official.
News of Zhang’s ouster follows a Dec. 26 report by Xinhua that he was being investigated by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China for what China Mobile separately said was a “serious discipli3nary breach” related to personal matters.
Zhang joined state-owned China Mobile Communications Corp. in May 2008, when the government ordered the country’s six biggest phone companies to merge in a reorganization aimed at boosting competition. He is also Communist Party secretary at the company.
Rainie Lei, spokeswoman at Hong Kong-listed China Mobile Ltd., couldn’t immediately comment on Zhang’s role at the unit, where he is vice-chairman.
Prior to his most recent appointment, Zhang was chairman of China Netcom Group Corp., the fixed-line carrier taken over by China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. as part of the revamp. Previously, he was director of telecommunications administration at the Ministry of Information Industry.