Woman to lead financial hub in China

Sun Chunlan, 62, will move from the southeastern coastal province of Fujian, where she had been party boss since 2009, the official Xinhua news agency said in a brief statement. The appointment had been widely expected.

Sun is one of only two women on the Politburo, a 25-member body that is a mix of military and civilian leaders which reports to the party's elite decision-making core, the seven-man Standing Committee.

She replaces Zhang Gaoli, who was last week raised to the Standing Committee following a once-every-five-year party congress that unveiled a generational leadership change.

Sun worked her way up through various factory jobs in China's northeastern industrial heartland and spent time in the late 1990s and early 2000s in Liaoning province, where the then up-and-coming Bo Xilai also worked and with whom she reputedly clashed, sources say.

Bo, once a top contender for senior leadership, is currently being investigated for corruption and abuse of power after his wife murdered a British businessman.

Tianjin, about 30 minutes southeast of Beijing by high-speed train, was a lively trade centre in pre-Communist days, before becoming a grubby backwater overshadowed by its close neighbour the Chinese capital.

But investment in Tainjin accelerated under Zhang's leadership, which began in 2007.

In the past three years alone, Tianjin has seen more than $160 billion in fixed

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