Unpopular education minister removed

During a session last year of China's largely ceremonial parliament, where motions are invariably carried unanimously, Zhou Ji received more than 300 “no” votes out of more than 3,000 delegates in a vote to approve new cabinet members.

China rarely sacks senior officials outright, normally reserving that punishment for those involved in large-scale corruption cases. In 2006, then-Shanghai Communist Party chief Chen Liangyu was fired for graft, and later jailed.

Zhou however has been transferred to become deputy Party chief at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Xinhua news agency said.

Rotations among posts by Chinese officials do not always imply punishment, but Zhou's was accompanied by scathing commentary.

China's higher education system has expanded rapidly in the last few years, churning millions of under-qualified graduates who have had trouble finding the jobs they hoped for.

“The sudden move is the latest shake-up of a public education system that Chinese traditionally feel is a fair pathway to advancement but which has been plagued with problems,” the state-run China Daily said.

Zhou was criticized for not addressing problems of poor education offered at the college level, expensive tuition fees and low funding for basic education.

“Though many of the issues predated his appointment in 2003,” China Daily said. “Zhou ... has come under fire for making little impact in solving them.”

Zhou, who had got his doctorate from State University of New York at Buffalo, was replaced by deputy minister Yuan Guiren.

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