Yu Zhengsheng: A reformer's style

BEIJING - Yu Zhengsheng, in the eyes of his colleagues, is a man who does not follow routines.

He would avoid prearranged inspections and then make sudden visits; He is not interested in listening to subordinates' lengthy work reports, but likes to go straight to questions.

Now, the trained missile engineer has made his way into China's top leadership.

Yu, 67, was elected last month member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China's (CPC) Central Committee with Xi Jinping, also newly elected general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, Li Keqiang, Zhang Dejiang, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli.

They were elected at the first plenum of the 18th CPC Central Committee following the national congress of the ruling party. OLD YU-STYLE

An official in Shanghai remembered that once when Yu, the municipality's former Party chief, made an inspection visit to Huangpu District, he told his driver to go directly to a community behind the high-rises, without telling district officials.

It was a shanty community, where Yu saw plastic bags hanging from ceilings of every home to catch leaking water when it rained, the official said.

This sudden inspection resulted in the accelerated transformation of unlivable old residential communities of the metropolis.

The style of Old Yu, as Shanghai citizens addressed their Party chief, was welcomed by local people. And Qin Ling was one of them.