What’s new: China named an aerospace engineer as the Communist Party secretary of northeastern China’s Liaoning province.
Hao Peng, 62, currently head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), replaces Zhang Guoqing as the provincial party secretary, according to Chen Xi, head of the organization department of the Communist Party of China’s Central Committee. Chen announced the appointment Monday at a meeting of provincial officials.
Hao graduated from Northwest Polytechnical University with a master’s degree in aerospace engineering and worked at the Aviation Industry Corp. of China, a state-owned military aircraft maker, during his early career. Later he served in various positions in a number of western provinces, including governor of Qinghai province from 2013 to 2016.
The background: Hao is the third party head of Liaoning with a military enterprise background. His predecessor Zhang used to work at China North Industries Group Corp., a state-owned defense business that produces a diverse range of commercial and military products. Zhang’s predecessor Chen Qiufa previously worked at China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., the main contractor for the Chinese space program.
In recent years, many officials of state-owned aerospace enterprises have been appointed to leading government positions, such as aerospace engineers Ma Xingrui, Community Party secretary of Xinjiang, and Yuan Jiajun, party secretary of Zhejiang province.
Contact reporter Denise Jia (huijuanjia@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bob.simison@caixin.com)
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