The party boss of Guangdong province, China’s economic powerhouse, has been replaced by a protege of President Xi Jinping, in one of the first of several reshuffles. Mr Hu Chunhua, 54, who had been seen as a potential successor to Mr Xi until in recent months, has been replaced…
The party boss of Guangdong province, China’s economic powerhouse, has been replaced by a protege of President Xi Jinping, in one of the first of several reshuffles. Mr Hu Chunhua, 54, who had been seen as a potential successor to Mr Xi until in recent months, has been replaced by Mr Li Xi, the party boss of Liaoning province.
Mr Li, 61, was promoted to the powerful 25-member Politburo last week after the conclusion of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) 19th national congress.
Mr Li worked with Mr Xi when the latter was party chief of Zhejiang province from 2002 to 2007. Mr Hu had been seen as a potential successor when, together with the now disgraced Chongqing party boss Sun Zhengcai, also 54, he was promoted to the Politburo in 2012, at the same time that Mr Xi assumed power as general secretary of the CCP.
Mr Hu and Mr Sun were born in the 1960s and had been expected to be promoted to the seven-member apex Politburo Standing Committee (PSC) at the just-ended congress.
