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plenumteam
In Personnel Tracker, Public

Former Ningxia organization department chief transferred to CAC

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.

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plenumteam
In Personnel Tracker

China appointed a vice-ministerial ranking minister-counselor to Chinese Embassy in Japan

On 16 May 2019, former Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) vice-ministerial ranking official Xia Mingjiu (夏鸣九) was appointed Minister-Counselor of the Chinese Embassy in Japan. The news came into light at the beginning of June 2019. Historically, State Council ministries have been tasked to appoint their officials to Chinese embassies across the world to assist the work of ambassadors on respective areas. For example, China’s counsels on trade and commerce are usually from MOFCOM while counsels on culture and tourism are usually from Ministry of Culture and Tourism, instead of being from Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). These counsels are usually selected from (vice-) departmental ranking officials, primarily because the highest ranking an ambassador can have in China is vice-ministerial. Xia’s appointment to Chinese Embassy in Japan broke this tradition—Xia is effectively of the same ranking as Chinese Ambassador to Japan. Xia will likely be tasked to facilitate technology cooperation between China and Japan, an initiative that is particularly important as China faces technology stalemate with the United States and may no longer be able to gain any technology know-how from the United States. Japan as a leader in technology sector becomes a natural choice for China to mingle with.

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plenumteam
In Personnel Tracker, Public

Heilongjiang official transferred to Ministry of Civil Affais

Heilongjiang official transferred to Ministry of Civil Affais

News: Former Heilongjiang Organization Department chief Wang Aiwen (王爱文) was transferred to Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) today as Vice Minister. Quick Take: Wang started his political career in 1987 in the then-Ministry of Labor, which was replaced by and integrated into the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MHRSS) in 1998. During his 18-year service, Wang was mainly in charge of employment-related matters. He was transferred to Heilongjiang in 2005, and had then been promoted within the province, and became the provincial Organization Department head in 2016. During his term in Heilongjiang, Wang has been widely praised for his capacity—especially his political performance in Yichun, where the city saw a GDP growth of almost 10% every year while he was serving as Party Secretary from 2011 to 2015. Now that he is appointed back to the central government, his role in MCA remains to be seen.

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plenumteam
In Personnel Tracker

Hunan sees a reshuffle on its CCPSC

Earlier in May 2019, Hunan CCPSC member and CCP Committee Secretary-General Xie Jianhui (谢建辉) was appointed Hunan Executive Vice Governor. Her old post has been taken by Hunan CCPSC member and Hunan SASAC Party Secretary Zhang Jianfei (张剑飞). A Hunan native, Zhang Jianfei was initially promoted onto vice-provincial level in November 2013 as Hunan Vice Governor, and then took concurrent appointment as Hunan SASAC Party Secretary, a position that only has full-departmental ranking, in July 2017. Zhang was promoted into Hunan CCPSC in December 2017, and gave up his vice governorship one month later in January 2018, only keeping the Hunan SASAC Party Secretary position. In such way, Zhang is the only provincial CCPSC member nationwide that takes the concurrent appointment as provincial SASAC Party Secretary. It is possible that the leadership of Hunan really valued SASAC work, but it is still highly unprecedented to have a provincial CCPSC member supervising SASAC. Now that Zhang has taken the position of Hunan CCP Committee Secretary-General, we expect him to give up the Hunan SASAC Party Secretary position in the very near future.

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plenumteam
In Personnel Tracker, Public

Personnel reshuffling continues in Guangdong

News: Former Shantou Party Secretary Fang Lixu (方利旭) was appointed head of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) Guangdong Committee (广东贸促会) today, replacing Lin Tao (林涛), who was promoted to Heyuan Mayor. Fang’s successor is Ma Wentian (马文田), former Guangzhou Vice Mayor. Quick Take: As we observed, there has been a notable wave of personnel reshuffling in the Teoswa region in Guangdong recently, following the latest ones on 8 May. CCPIT is a provincial foreign trade promotion organization, with main responsibilities to promote Guangdong’s cross-border economic cooperation and further the internationalization of local businesses. CCPIT has previously played an important role particularly with trade and matters concerning HK and Macau. More importantly, Fang is the first departmental-level ranked official to be appointed to the post—his predecessor Lin Tao was only ranked vice departmental-level as Shanwei CCPSC member and Propaganda Department Chairman before being transferred to CCPIT. This means that CCPIT is going to play a bigger role in the region, most likely to better assist the rapid development of the GBA.

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plenumteam
In Personnel Tracker

Former Yunnan Party Secretary Qin Guangrong (秦光荣) surrendered himself to the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI)

Qin is the eighth provincial party secretary ousted since the beginning of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign, and the second Yunnan Party Secretary ousted. Qin’s predecessor as Yunnan Party Secretary, Bai Enpei (白恩培), was ousted on 29 August 2014 and was sentenced for death penalty with two-year reprieve. When the sentence was automatically reduced at the end of the two-year term, Bai was sentenced to life imprisonment without commutation or parole. Qin’s voluntary surrender to CCDI is a result of the investigation of CCDI against his son Qin Ling (秦岭) that was launched weeks ago. Qin Ling was a senior manager of China Huarong Asset Management Co. Ltd., where former Board Chairman Lai Xiaomin (赖小民) is being prosecuted for accepting bribes, corruption, and bigamy. Under Lai, Qin Ling served as Board Chairman of Huarong Investment Stock Co. Ltd. (02277.HK), a Hong Kong-listed subsidiary of Huarong Asset Management. According to two sources in Beijing, Qin Ling leveraged his father’s connection to help arrange meetings between already-ousted Politburo member and Chongqing Party Secretary Sun Zhengcai (孙政才) and Lai Xiaomin, who aspired to utilize his SOE experience and take senior government/party positions before being ousted. Xi has been very sensitive to local leaders colluding with each other—especially as Chongqing and Yunnan are neighboring provinces—any collusion by local leaders would potentially pose threat to regime stability and central government’s firm grasp of local politics. Other than Qin and Bai, ousted provincial party secretaries include aforementioned former Chongqing Party Secretary Sun Zhengcai, former Hebei Party Secretary Zhou Benshun (周本顺), former Liaoning Party Secretary Wang Min (王珉), former Tianjin Party Secretary Huang Xingguo (黄兴国), former Gansu Party Secretary Wang Sanyun (王三运), and former Shaanxi Party Secretary Zhao Zhengyong (赵正永). In Yunnan, five other vice-provincial officials have been ousted since the beginning of Xi’s anti-corruption campaign, including former Yunnan Vice Party Secretary Qiu He (仇和), former Yunnan CCPSC member and Kunming Party Secretary (张田欣), former Yunnan CCPSC member and CCP Committee Secretary-General Cao Jianfang (曹建方), former Yunnan CCPSC member and Political and Legal Affairs Commission Chairman Meng Sutie (孟苏铁), and former Yunnan Vice Governor Shen Peiping (沈培平)—all of whom had worked under both Bai and Qin, who were Yunnan Party Secretary from 2001 to 2011 and from 2011 to 2014, respectively. Even before Qin’s ouster, Yunnan was one of the provinces where corruption was most prevalent—Qiu He was Zhang Tianxin’s predecessor as Kunming Party Secretary before being promoted to become Yunnan Vice Party Secretary, while Zhang’s successor as Kunming Party Secretary Gao Jinsong (高劲松) was also ousted, right after his Kunming Party Secretary appointment when Yunnan CCPSC didn’t even have the chance to appoint Gao into the provincial CCPSC. This pattern, where a number of officials consecutively taking the same position were all found corrupt, is distinctive especially in Yunnan, which means the corruption networks were stronger and more interconnected than those of other provinces. With Qin’s latest ouster, we expect that he will give up more names of his corrupt subordinates during the investigation in exchange for shorter sentence, especially if he himself did not take much bribe other than helping his banker son politically. This means that more disruption should be expected in local officialdom of Yunnan, which is still recovering from massive ousters caused by the investigation of Bai Enpei and Qiu He, former no.1 and no.3 of the province. Notably, Qin was a senior leader of Communist Youth League (CYL) in Hunan in the early stage of his career, and was very well-liked by Ling Jihua (令计划) and Li Yuanchao (李源潮), chief of staff and HR manager to Hu Jintao, respectively. The ouster of Qin Guangrong also increases the chance of ouster of former Jiangsu Party Secretary Luo Zhijun (罗志军), who was Li Yuanchao’s close associate in Jiangsu and another senior figure of CYL.

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plenumteam
In Personnel Tracker, Public

Former Yunnan party secretary surrendered to CCDI…

News: Former Yunnan Party Secretary Qin Guangrong (秦光荣) turned himself in today to CCDI for committing serious violations of party discipline and law. Quick Take: Qin is the second Party Secretary to be taken down in Yunnan—Qin’s predecessor Bai Enpei (白恩培) was ousted in August 2011 for committing millions of bribes and charged of suspended death sentence, the harshest penalty ever given to a senior official since the whole anti-corruption campaign. Moreover interestingly, Qin Guangrong’s son Qin Ling (秦岭), former executive director of Huarong Asset Management Co., (华融资产管理股份有限公司), had also been under investigation previously, as one of the continuous disruptions in the company after its then-board chairman Lai Xiaomin was ousted in October 2018. Qin Guangrong’s surrender is very likely related to his son’s wrong doings. In any case, we expect more disruptions to follow shortly in Yunnan.

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In Public

High-profile national conference held on public security

News: A national conference on public security was held in Beijing on 7 and 8 May. The conference was attended by a number of senior officials including Chinese president Xi Jinping, PBSC member and Vice Premier Han Zheng, and PBSC member and Central Committee Secretariat Wang Huning. In his keynote speech, Xi stressed the importance of police loyalty and competence, and the need to reform through technology. Last but not least, Xi also pointed out the “zero-tolerance” to any violations of party discipline within the police force. Quick Take: It’s been 16 years since last such conference on public security was held, under the lead of then-president Hu jintao in 2003. The implication is two-fold—firstly, it was Xi’s first appearance at such high-profile conference centered on public security. The department has previously been relatively sidelined from core political dynamic; however, as the former Public Security Vice Minister Meng Hongwei (孟宏伟) was taken down for corruption and political wrongdoings in October 2018, it has then gained much attention and became a key target of CCDI’s antigraft investigation in 2019. There have recently been countless disruptions within the department and multiple departmental and county-level officials taken down nationwide. Secondly, loyalty to the party and to Xi personally becomes an increasingly important factor in officialdom, not just in public security but also in all government organs.

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In Public

Personnel changes in Guangdong’s three Teoswa prefectural-level cities

News: Three of Guangdong’s prefectural-level cities have their new Party Secretaries reshuffled today. Ma Wentian (马文田) was appointed Shantou Party Secretary, Li Yalin (李雅林) was appointed Chaozhou Party Secretary, and Ye Niuping (叶牛平) was appointed Jieyang Party Secretary. Notably, all Shantou, Chaozhou and Jieyang are identified as Teoswa region, located in the east of the province and distinguished by its dialect. Quick Take: Guangdong has always been a region with vast factional network, mainly characterized by its dialects. Local officials identified with different factions have thus been highly divided into different gangs, which was indeed the root cause of the province’s entangling corruptional network that has been troubling Xi over the years. The situation only started to change since 2012 when CCP started transferring officials from outside to the province, a major remedy to break down the regional gangs. However, such personnel reshuffling has indeed only remained on the provincial level—due to regional particularities in different localities, the major posts in prefectural-level cities are mostly taken by locals. Interestingly, even though all three newly appointed officials today have previously served in the province, none of them are Guangdong local—Ma is from Henan, Li from Shandong, and Ye from Anhui. As the province turns into an increasingly significant region both economically and technologically, the antigraft campaign comes along strong too. Such trend to transfer non-local officials to cities with clear factional identification is likely to continue within the province.

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In Public

New CCDI personnel appointment in MFA

News: Former Chief Inspector of Central Commission of Discipline Inspection (CCDI) at Foreign Affairs Office Zhang Ji (张骥) was transferred to become Chief Inspector of CCDI at Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) today. Quick Take: Zhang is to replace Xie Hangsheng (谢杭生), who has been working in CCDI system at MFA for more than seven years. Now aged 64, one year over the stated age limit, Xie will now officially enter retirement. Including Zhang’s appointment today, there have been a continuous wave of personnel reshuffling in MFA since the beginning of this year, including Assistant Minister Liu Xianfa (刘显法) and Party Secretary Qi Yu (齐玉). Apart from this, we have also observed a notable crossover between commerce and foreign affairs in the background of many recently transferred officials—for example, Zhang Ji spent most of his career in Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and Ministry of Commerce before serving for CCDI; moreover, Liu Xianfa has previously worked for SINOPEC and NDRC before entering Foreign Affairs. Last but not least, recently appointed Ministry of Commerce Vice Party Secretary Yu Jianhua (俞建华) has also taken several posts in foreign affairs such as China’s permanent representative to the UN office in Geneva. This emerging trend suggests that officials’ previous work experience in these two fields is now being increasingly valued for promotion.

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