Zhang Dejiang, 65, whose chances of promotion were boosted on Thursday when he was chosen to replace Bo in Chongqing, serving concurrently in his current post as vice premier. As vice premier in charge of industry, his star had been tarnished by the downfall of the railway minister for corruption in 2011.

Zhang, who is close to former president Jiang Zemin who still wields some influence, studied economics at Kim Il-sung University in North Korea and is a native of northeast China. On his watch as party chief of Guangdong, the southern province maintained its position as a powerhouse of China‘s economic growth, even as it struggled with energy shortages, corruption-fuelled unrest and the emergence of the 2003 SARS epidemic.