On 30 November 2019, incumbent Shanxi party secretary Luo Huining (骆惠宁, b.1954) officially retired due to age limit, and has been succeeded by Shanxi governor Lou Yangsheng (楼阳生).
Lou was a close confidante of President Xi, with whom Lou worked closely in Zhejiang from 2002 to 2007. Particularly, it was under Xi’s watch that Lou was promoted to become Lishui party secretary in 2003, the second full-prefectural job and the first prefectural party secretary job of Lou. In June 2014, Lou was transferred to Shanxi to help clean up the corruption mess of the province. The prevalent corruption activities and deeply-rooted corruption networks uncovered by central inspection in 2014 took down an incumbent Shanxi vice party secretary, four Shanxi Party standing committee members, one former Shanxi Party standing committee member, one vice governor, and one Shanxi CPPCC vice chairman, alongside dozens of departmental/prefectural-ranking officials in the province. Lou played a vital role in restoring political order in the province and has been sinced rewarded with positions in Shanxi.