Neil Thomas 牛犇 Profile picture
Fellow on Chinese Politics @AsiaSociety. Ex @EurasiaGroup @MacroPoloChina @Harvard. Words @ForeignPolicy @LowyInstitute @TIME @WashingtonPost etc. Views my own.

Oct 4, 2021, 10 tweets

Big personnel moves in the Chinese Communist Party in recent days

New provincial leaders in Anhui, Shandong, Xinjiang & Zhejiang

And a former Minister of Justice is purged

These moves show Xi Jinping further consolidating power before the 20th Party Congress next fall (1/10)

Li Ganjie 李干杰 (56) is the new Party Secretary of Shandong

Promoted from Governor of Shandong, a post he was "parachuted" into from Minister of Environment last April

Politburo contender. Youngest provincial PS & part of "Tsinghua clique" of grads of Xi's alma mater (2/10)

Zhou Naixiang 周乃翔 (59) is the new Governor of Shandong

Level-up promotion from Party Secretary of China State Construction Engineering Corporation

Worked 35+ years in native Jiangsu, inc under Xi allies Cai Qi & Li Qiang

Will upgrade to a full Central Committee seat (3/10)

Zheng Shanjie 郑栅洁 (59) is the new Party Secretary of Anhui

Promoted from Governor of Zhejiang, a level-up role he only got last September

Worked in Xiamen when Xi was Fujian Governor 99-02 (Xi was Xiamen deputy mayor 85-88)

Will win at least a Central Committee seat (4/10)

Wang Hao 王浩 (58) is the new Governor of Zhejiang, replacing Zheng

Level-up promotion to ministerial rank from Party Secretary of Xi'an city

Previously was PS of Tangshan and Yantai and worked 35 years in his native Shandong

Will win a Central Committee seat (5/10)

Erkin Tuniyaz (艾尔肯·吐尼亚孜) (59) is the new Governor of Xinjiang (called the "chairman" 主席)

Level-up promotion to ministerial rank from Vice Governor of Xinjiang

Extends a run of Uyghur governors in Xinjiang since 1979

Will upgrade to a full Central Committee seat (6/10)

Fu Zhenghua 傅政华 (66) was put under investigation by the CCP's discipline watchdog

Second 19th Central Committee member investigated after Liu Shiyu in 2019

Fu worked the Zhou Yongkang case in 2013 but his star was already waning as Minister of Justice from 2018-2020 (7/10)

Some thoughts on these personnel moves:

Working under Xi, under a Xi ally, or having another Xi connection remains a great way to get promoted!

Despite economic wobbles, Xi remains large and in charge of the CCP

Partly due to his deep clean of the security apparatus (8/10)

Some recently promoted politicians appear in a piece I did for @MacroPoloChina earlier this year that analyzed all of the provincial leadership promotions in 2020 (9/10)

macropolo.org/chinese-politi…

Would recommend everyone check out The Committee, the @MacroPoloChina database of CC Central Committee members

Am proud to have worked on The Committee and designed the function whereby you can see which cadres used to work with each other! (10/10)

macropolo.org/digital-projec…

Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.

A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.

Keep scrolling