The governor of China's Shanxi province has resigned over a devastating landslide that killed at least 254 people, state media reported Sunday. Meng Xuenong's resignation was accepted by the provincial legislature Sunday afternoon, Xinhua news agency said.
It is the second time Meng has lost a senior position over a major scandal after his 2003 departure as Beijing's mayor amid the deadly SARS epidemic. He is the highest-ranking official to lose his job over the disaster that hit the town of Taoshi on Monday, when a mining waste reservoir burst its banks and engulfed the community of 1,000 people.
Earlier reports in the state press said the mayor of Taoshi and other ranking officials had already been sacked over the disaster. Meng, 59, launched his political career in the Communist Youth League, and is considered a close ally of President Hu Jintao. He had only been mayor of Beijing for a few weeks when a crisis erupted over Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, a deadly epidemic which China initially tried to deny.
When China was forced to own up to the extent of the SARS epidemic, Meng was sacked along with health minister Zhang Wenkang. He was widely seen as a fall guy, since it was considered unlikely that he could have masterminded the comprehensive cover-up of the disease and its victims.
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