As Xi Jinping has few people he can trust, there is a gap in the official hierarchy, with the most vacancies in the post of deputy secretary of provincial party committees.
For the 20th CPC National Congress, Xi Jinping has continued to make adjustments to provincial and ministerial officials, and because there are few people he can trust, there is a gap in the official hierarchy, with the most vacancies in the post of deputy secretary of provincial party committees. Now, Zhang Jinghua, a member of the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Nanjing Municipal Party Committee, and Ye Jianchun, Vice Minister of Water Resources, have been transferred to full-Time deputy secretaries in Jiangsu and Jiangxi provinces, respectively.
Jiangsu and Jiangxi provinces full-time deputy secretary to fill the vacancies
Xinhua Daily reported on February 19 that the CPC Central Committee decided to transfer Zhang Jinghua, a member of the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee and Secretary of the Nanjing Municipal Committee, to become a full-time deputy secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Committee. The former deputy secretary of Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee, Ren Zhenhe, was promoted to deputy secretary and governor of Gansu Provincial Party Committee in November 2020.
According to public information, as an alternate member of the 19th CPC Central Committee, Zhang Jinghua, born in July 1962, is a native of Taizhou, Jiangsu Province. He has served as deputy director of the Jiangsu Provincial Economic and Trade Commission and director of the provincial safety supervision bureau, deputy director of the Jiangsu Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, deputy secretary-general of Jiangsu Province, director of the Jiangsu Provincial Environmental Protection Department, deputy secretary, acting mayor and mayor of Xuzhou, secretary of the Zhenjiang Municipal Party Committee, secretary-general and vice governor of Jiangsu Province.
Xinjing News reported that the CPC Central Committee decided to transfer Ye Jianchun, Vice Minister of Water Resources, to the post of Deputy Secretary of Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee. The former deputy secretary of Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee, Li Bingjun, was promoted to deputy secretary of Guizhou Provincial Party Committee and governor.
According to public information, Ye Jianchun, born in July 1965, a native of Zhouning, Fujian. He has served as assistant director, deputy director and director of the Shanghai Institute of Survey and Design, director of the Taihu Lake Basin Authority of the Ministry of Water Resources, director of the Department of Finance and vice minister of the Ministry of Water Resources. from March 2018 to January 2020, Ye Jianchun served as vice minister of the Ministry of Water Resources and vice minister of the Ministry of Emergency Management.
Fractured official echelon with many vacancies for full-time deputy secretaries
In the CCP officialdom, except for Xinjiang and Tibet, the Party committees of other provinces (cities and autonomous regions) have only two deputy secretary positions, one of which is the head of the government and the other is usually called a full-time deputy secretary. According to the CCP’s promotion rules, full-time deputy secretaries are usually more likely to be promoted to provincial administrative heads.
Since 2020, CPC provincial officials have undergone three reshuffles, but the one most in short supply is a full-time deputy secretary. As of February 19, 10 provinces (cities and autonomous regions), including Tianjin, Hebei, Henan, Shanxi, Zhejiang, Anhui,, Yunnan, Qinghai, Guangxi and Ningxia, have vacancies for full-time deputy party secretaries.
According to the pro-communist media Hong Kong01, the deputy secretary of the CPC provincial committee is the highest deputy position of the local party committee, as the alternate of the provincial ministerial level official, there are numerous vacancies of the full-time deputy secretary, showing that there is a serious fault line problem in the echelon of the top officials of the CPC.
Currently, full-time deputy secretaries in seven provinces (municipalities and autonomous regions) – Inner Mongolia, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Ningxia and Xinjiang – hold other powerful positions, mainly as secretaries of provincial political and legal committees and provincial capital cities (or sub-provincial cities).
According to Ren Chongdao, a researcher of “Tianjun Political Economy”, in the unspoken rules of official promotion in the Communist Party of China, it is very easy for a full-time deputy secretary of a provincial party committee to be promoted to a provincial ministerial-level administrative hand, such as a governor. The fact that there are so many vacancies for full-time deputy secretaries, who are the alternates for provincial officials, shows that there is a serious gap in the echelon of officials at the top of the Communist Party, and Xi Jinping has few officials he can trust.
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