Editing Shanxi (section)

== Politics ==
{{Main|Politics of Shanxi}}

The [[Governor of Shanxi]] is the highest-ranking official in the People's Government of Shanxi. However, in the province's dual party-government governing system, the Governor is subordinate to the [[Party Secretary of Shanxi]]. As is the case in almost all Chinese provinces, the provincial party secretary and Governor are not natives of Shanxi; rather, they are outsiders who are, in practice, appointed by the central party and government authorities.

The province went through significant political instability since 2004, due largely to the number of scandals that have hit the province on labour safety, the environment, and the interconnected nature between the provincial political establishment and big coal companies. [[Yu Youjun]] was sent by the central government in 2005 to become Governor but resigned in the wake of the [[2007 Chinese slave scandal|Shanxi slave labour scandal]] in 2007. He was succeeded by [[Meng Xuenong]], who had been previously sacked as Mayor of Beijing in the aftermath of the SARS outbreak. Meng himself was removed from office in 2008 after only a few months on the job due to the political fallout from the [[2008 Shanxi mudslide]]. In 2008, provincial Political Consultative Conference Chair, one of the highest-ranked provincial officials, [[Jin Yinhuan]], died in a car accident.

Since [[Xi Jinping]]'s ascendancy to [[General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party]] at the [[18th Party Congress (China)|18th Party Congress]], numerous highly ranked officials in Shanxi have been placed under investigation for corruption-related offenses, including four incumbent members [[Bai Yun (politician)|Bai Yun]], [[Chen Chuanping]], [[Du Shanxue]],  and [[Nie Chunyu]] of the provincial Communist Party Standing Committee. They were all removed from office around August 2014. The following were also removed from office:
* [[Ling Zhengce]], the provincial Political Consultative Conference vice-chair and the older brother of [[Ling Jihua]];
* [[Ling Jihua]], the province's Vice Governor [[Ren Runhou]];
* [[Shen Weichen]], former Taiyuan party secretary;
* [[Liu Suiji]], Taiyuan police secretary;
* [[Jin Daoming]], vice-chair of the provincial People's Congress;
* [[Wang Maoshe]], [[Yuncheng]] party secretary; and
* [[Feng Lixiang]], [[Datong]] party secretary

Thousands of Shanxi officials were disciplined during the [[anti-corruption campaign under Xi Jinping]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Zhan |first=Jing Vivian |title=China's Contained Resource Curse: How Minerals Shape State-Capital-Labor Relations |date=2022 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-1-009-04898-9 |location=Cambridge, United Kingdom}}</ref>{{Rp|page=4}} This necessitated a scramble to find suitable personnel for many vacated offices.<ref name=":1" />{{Rp|page=4}} In the aftermath of the 'political earthquake', party secretary [[Yuan Chunqing]] was removed from his post in September 2014, with [[Wang Rulin]] 'helicoptered' into the provincial Party Secretary office.