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Rocket scientist Yuan Jiajun named China’s Communist Party chief for mega city Chongqing
- Yuan, a member of the party’s new 24-member central Politburo, spearheaded President Xi Jinping’s ‘common prosperity drive’ as Zhejiang party boss
- Chongqing party chief is a key regional role that often sees incumbents further raised to senior national leadership
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Chinese rocket scientist Yuan Jiajun, newly named to the Communist Party’s 24-member Politburo, has been appointed to take the helm of the southwestern mega city Chongqing as party secretary.
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The appointment was announced on Thursday by state news agency Xinhua, seven weeks after the 20th Party Congress, a landmark edition of the five-yearly conclave which saw President Xi Jinping secure a groundbreaking third term and reveal a top leadership stacked with loyalists.
Yuan was named to the new Politburo, pared down to 24 seats from 25 in the last congress and featuring a mix of Xi’s trusted allies and technocrats. All six other members of the all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee led by Xi are known to be his core confidants.
The Communist Party chief of Chongqing – one of the four directly administered municipalities alongside Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai – is a key regional leadership role that often sees incumbents further raised to senior national leadership.
Chongqing is also a manufacturing hub in southwestern China and home to a handful of key companies producing laptops, smartwatches and cars.
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On Thursday, Chongqing’s original party chief Chen Miner was appointed party chief of Tianjin, another municipality, confirming a previous report by the South China Morning Post.
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