Shanghai's Party Secretary Chen Liangyu was dismissed on September 24 following allegations that he and other city officials were involved in the misuse of the city's 10 billion yuan social security fund. The money was allegedly illicitly invested in potentially risky real estate and toll road projects. Chen is the highest level Chinese official to be fired since former Beijing party secretary Chen Xitong, who was prosecuted and convicted of graft in 1995. In June, Liu Zhihua, Vice-Mayor of Beijing, was removed from his post for alleged involvement in corruption.

In the wake of a series of sensational corruption scandals involving some high-ranking officials, the Communist Party of China embarked on a reshuffle of the chiefs of the Party's anti-graft bodies at the provincial level, which displays its resolve to halt corruption through strengthened supervision. New graft busters in three municipalities of Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin were appointed from outside the municipalities in December with two having a background in the Party's top anti-corruption body. Earlier this year, disciplinary heads in the six other provinces of Guangdong, Zhejiang, Anhui, Henan, Shanxi and Fujian were "parachuted" into their new posts.