Two senior Chinese Communist Party officials swap jobs in 'unprecedented' move

By Laurie Chen

Two members of China's Politburo, the Communist Party's elite decision-making body, have swapped jobs, state media reported on Wednesday, without giving a reason for a reshuffle that analysts called unprecedented at this level of the Chinese hierarchy.

Shi Taifeng was named head of the party's Organisation Department, responsible for all internal personnel decisions, while Li Ganjie was named chief of the United Front Work Department, which projects party influence over religious and ethnic minorities, as well as Hong Kong and Taiwan.

State media offered no explanation.

Top party officials and ministers are occasionally appointed to new positions to prevent them from building up local factions or power bases, analysts say.

However, the job swap among Politburo members was unprecedented in the history of China's Communist Party, said Alfred Wu, associate professor at National University of Singapore.

"It is not unusual for government ministers, but these two Politburo positions are very important heavyweights in the party."

Both men were promoted to the 24-member Politburo in 2022, but are not on the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee, the apex of power in China's political system.

President Xi Jinping has spearheaded a wide-ranging anti-corruption campaign targeting party officials and the military since coming to power in 2012. But there was no suggestion the latest move was linked to corruption allegations concerning the two men.

"This reshuffle is a sign that Xi thinks the Central Organisation Department has not been doing a good enough job at vetting candidates for top leadership positions in light of chronic leadership purges over the last two years," said Wen-Ti Sung, fellow at the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub.

Shi, 68, is considered a close ally of Xi, having worked with him at the Central Party School where Xi served as president between 2007 and 2012.

From 2010, he ascended the political ranks in Jiangsu province and became the top party official in Ningxia and Inner Mongolia, two regions with a high proportion of ethnic and religious minorities.

He also did a stint as president of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the country's leading social sciences research body, before being appointed head of the United Front Work Department in October 2022.

Li, 60, is the youngest Politburo member and a technocrat with a background in nuclear safety. He was appointed to several government positions in nuclear safety before becoming environmental protection minister in 2017.

He spent less than two years as governor of Shandong province before being elevated to the Politburo.

This was a meteoric rise for a Chinese politician, who would normally need several years of experience as governor or Communist Party secretary of multiple provinces for such a move.

There has been unusual turnover of Chinese political personnel moves in the past two years. Two former defence ministers have been investigated for alleged graft and ex-foreign minister Qin Gang was abruptly removed. A senior military official was also investigated last November.