Sinopec chief steps down
25 June 2007
Sinopec chairman Chen Tonghai has resigned from his post for "personal reasons," forfeiting his positions as general manager and Communist Party chief of the Hong Kong-listed arm of state-owned China Petrochemical, the Financial Times reported, though at least one Chinese media report quoted sources from Sinopec's parent company as saying "serious breaches of discipline" - an often-used euphemism for official corruption - were involved. Chen will be replaced by Su Shulin, currently vice-president of PetroChina, one of Sinopec's largest rivals. The appointment of a PetroChina executive to the post may be seen as a disapproval of Sinopec's management methods from high levels in the Communist Party, which controls senior appointments in state-owned companies.