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SCMP Reporters

In an unprecedented swap, the heads of the personnel department and influence machine of China’s ruling Communist Party have switched roles.
Li Ganjie has become head of the United Front Work Department and Shi Taifeng is the new chief of the Organisation Department, according to official media and a statement released on Wednesday that included their new titles.
State news agency Xinhua confirmed Li’s new role by reporting on his attendance at a meeting on Wednesday, while Shi conducted an inspection of the personnel department in his new capacity on the same day, according to an announcement by the office.
It confirms an earlier report by the South China Morning Post before the official announcement.




Li and Shi are members of the elite 24-man Politburo, but are not part of the core seven-member Standing Committee.
There is no previous case of Politburo members swapping positions. The usual term length for any position at the duo’s level is five years. Both were promoted to the Politburo at the 20th party congress in October 2022. Li was given his current job in April 2023 and Shi in October 2022.
In his new role, Shi, 68, will oversee the appointment and promotion of senior officials.
Meanwhile, Li, 60, will take over a department responsible for stepping up party propaganda among Chinese who are not party members, as well as overseeing religious organisations and political groups inside and outside China. It is also responsible for wooing Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwanese and overseas Chinese.
Li, a nuclear safety expert, is the youngest member of the Politburo and considered one of six technocrats. He had a remarkable career rise.
After graduating from Tsinghua University in 1989 with a master’s degree in nuclear reactor engineering and safety, Li spent 27 years at the National Nuclear Safety Administration.
He followed that with a brief stint as deputy governor of the northern province of Hebei and became the country’s environmental protection minister in 2017.
The following year, in a State Council reshuffle, Li became China’s first minister of ecology and environment.
In 2020, Li was appointed governor of the eastern province of Shandong, and a year later was promoted to provincial party secretary, his first major regional role and the youngest provincial party chief at the time.
Just a year later, he moved up another level to the Politburo.
Deng Yuwen, former deputy editor of Study Times, the Central Party School’s official newspaper, said: “This personnel reshuffle appears to be an unusual one, as such exchanges have not occurred in the past.”
Deng said the change could have been made for preparations for the 21st party congress scheduled for 2027. He added that Xi would want to place a trusted ally to oversee the process.
“From Xi’s perspective, placing a trusted ally in charge of this process could be a strategic move to ensure stability and control,” he added.
In April 2023, Li replaced Chen Xi as head of the party’s Organisation Department.
Chen is considered an ally of Chinese President Xi Jinping, with their relationship dating back to their time as roommates at Tsinghua University.
During Chen’s tenure, the party broke with convention and adopted a more opaque model for selecting, promoting and demoting cadres, making it harder than ever for academics to predict political careers. The previous unwritten rules about retirement ages at different levels are also no longer decisive.
Meanwhile, the accelerated promotion of more technocratic bureaucrats is seen as a key driver of Xi’s strategy to make China technologically self-sufficient.
Analysts have suggested that Chen, a former member of the Politburo, played a major role in the rise of technocratic bureaucrats to the top circles of power.
The 71-year-old still heads the Central Party School, the party’s top academy for training officials. The post used to be held by a sitting member of the Politburo.




Shi also worked at the school. For more than 20 years from the 1980s, he held various positions, including director of the school’s legal department and its vice-president. Between 2007 and 2010, he was deputy to Xi, who was then leading the Central Party School as the country’s vice-president.
In 2010, Shi was transferred to the eastern province of Jiangsu, one of China’s wealthiest industrial and commercial regions. He became governor of the province in 2016 and just over a year later, party secretary of Ningxia Hui autonomous region in the north.
In October 2019, Shi was posted as party chief to another minority autonomous region, Inner Mongolia, where he remained until May 2022, when he became president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Shi is seen as a key implementer of Xi’s ethnic affairs policy, which is based on fostering “a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation”.
Under Shi’s tenure, Inner Mongolia became a model for implementing Xi’s vision of ethnic integration through various measures, including the mandatory use of Mandarin as the language of instruction in schools, the censorship of artistic and cultural works, and the abolition of local laws that do not comply with ethnic policies.


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News

China

Politics

The heads of the party’s human resources and influence departments have switched positions


The heads of the party’s human resources and influence departments have switched positions.


Communist Party politics