China is lining up a Harvard-trained economist as its next central bank chief

China has named an economist who studied at Cambridge University and Harvard University to a key political post at its central bank that could position him to eventually replace governor Yi Gang. Pan Gongsheng was appointed Saturday as the new Communist Party chief at the People's Bank of China (PBOC), in a surprise move as Beijing bolsters its drive to arrest the country's economic slowdown and stem a slide in its currency. The announcement came just days before US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is expected to visit Beijing, and follows a series of downbeat economic data that has sent the…