Yao Ming Now Big Man in Shanghai Politics - East Idaho News
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Yao Ming Now Big Man in Shanghai Politics

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GETTY W 011112 YaoMingPandas?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1326822077940China Photos/Getty Images(SHANGHAI) — When news broke that Chinese NBA superstar Yao Ming was planning to hang up his jersey last summer after a persistent injury got the better of his on-court career, his former also-newly retired-rival Shaquille O’Neal welcomed him.

But since leaving professional basketball in July, Yao has become a force in Shanghai. He has gone back to school, launched a high-end wine label, released pandas into the wild and, just this past weekend, been elected onto a political advisory committee in his hometown of Shanghai.

The 31-year-old took his place on Sunday at Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Shanghai Committee’s annual meeting alongside six other newly elected members who were all almost twice his age. Among his new colleagues were the directors of the Shanghai Library and the Shanghai Tourism Bureau. Yao is the youngest and, at 7-foot-6, the tallest member of the 142-person committee.

Even in retirement, Yao Ming is still one of the most famous men in China. Organizations and Yao himself are seemingly eager to use his influential capital while the going is still good.

“Yao said the new title shows trust coming from the people in the city,” Yao spokesman Zhang Chi told the China Daily. Zhang denied that Yao harbored any political aspirations.

“The responsibilities for a CPPCC member include offering political consultation, and supervision. What Yao wants is to use his influence to do good deeds for society, but not to seek a political position,” Zhang said.

With the new job Yao is expected to attend regular meetings and offer suggestions or written proposals to the local government.

Yao will have to juggle this new political job with a fulltime gig at Shanghai’s prestigious Jiao Tong University — albeit though through custom, private one-on-one degree program — and his commitments as owner of Shanghai’s professional basketball team, The Sharks, for which he used to play.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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