By The Straits Times | Created at 2025-04-02 11:52:23 | Updated at 2025-04-03 10:45:03
23 hours ago
BEIJING - Two members of China's Politburo, the Communist Party's elite decision-making body, have swapped jobs, state media reported on Wednesday, without saying why.
Shi Taifeng was named head of the Communist Party's Organisation Department, responsible for all internal personnel decisions, while Li Ganjie was named chief of the United Front Work Department, which projects party influence over religious and ethnic minorities, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Despite being part of the powerful 24-member Politburo, both men are not on the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, the apex of power in China's political system. Both were promoted to the Politburo in October 2022.
State media offered no explanation for the new postings.
Shi, 68, is considered a close ally of President Xi Jinping, having worked with him at the Central Party School where Xi served as president between 2007 and 2012.
From 2010, he ascended the political ranks in Jiangsu province and became the top party official in Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, two regions with a high proportion of ethnic and religious minorities.
He also did a stint as president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the country's leading social sciences research body, before being appointed head of the United Front Work Department in October 2022.
Li, 60, is the youngest Politburo member and a technocrat with a background in nuclear safety. He was appointed to several government positions in nuclear safety before becoming environmental protection minister in 2017.
He spent less than two years as governor of Shandong province before being elevated to the Politburo in October 2022.
This was a meteoric rise for a Chinese politician, who would normally need several years of experience as governor or Communist Party secretary of multiple provinces for such a move.
There has been unprecedented instability in Chinese political personnel moves over the past two years. Two former defence ministers have been investigated for alleged graft and ex-foreign minister Qin Gang was abruptly removed. A senior military official was also investigated last November. REUTERS
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