News: Former Ningxia Organization Department Chairman Sheng Ronghua (盛荣华) was transferred to Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) as deputy director of its general office today.
Quick Take: A Hunan local, Sheng had previously worked in Hunan province for 34 years until Feb 2017, when he was transferred to Ningxia as Organization Department chief. Interestingly, Sheng is now the only CAC general office deputy director with no prior experience in the cyber industry—both of his two other colleagues Yang Xiaowei (杨小伟) and Liu Liehong (刘烈宏) were leading central SOEs in telecommunication before their appointment to CAC. Moreover, there had been a notable wave of personnel reshuffling among provincial Organizational Department heads—Sheng’s appointment today is the 9thsince 2019. Now Jilin, Heilongjiang, Fujian, Jiangxi and Ningxia are all lacking their Organization Department chiefs.
Personnel change in MFA continued…
News: Former national counter-terrorism security commissioner Cheng Guoping (程国平) was appointed to the Department of External Security Affairs at MFA today.
Quick Take：Cheng’s political career has been mostly based in MFA—his previous posts include Department of European and Central Asian Affairs Director-General, and ambassador to the Republic Kazakhstan. He was appointed MFA Vice Minister in 2011, but left MFA in 2016 for a special post as national counter-terrorism security commissioner, administered directly by the central government. Born in 1952, Cheng is now aged 67, already above the age limit set for vice-ministerial level official. His appointment today is a good indicator of the rising importance of external security in foreign affairs matters.