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Victoria Bela

China’s southern tech hub of Shenzhen has a new Communist Party chief, nearly six months after the city’s former party boss was promoted to provincial governor.
State media announced on Sunday that Jin Lei, 56, had been appointed Shenzhen’s party chief as well as a member of the Guangdong provincial party committee and its standing committee.
Jin, an economist and former official in the southwestern province of Sichuan, takes over from Meng Fanli, who had been in the position since April 2022.
Meng was promoted to Guangdong’s governor in October and retained the Shenzhen position until the naming of his replacement.
Jin was born in the central province of Henan in 1970 and obtained a bachelor’s degree from Wuhan University’s political science department in 1992.
He was awarded a master’s degree in economics from Xiamen University in 2002, according to the Shenzhen-based Securities Times.
Jin has held various posts in Henan over the past three decades, including deputy director of the provincial development and reform commission, mayor of Anyang and deputy party chief of provincial capital Zhengzhou – also known as “iPhone City”.
In 2019, he was named the party secretary of Deyang in Sichuan before becoming a member of the provincial standing committee three years later.
Jin’s appointment comes less than a fortnight after the “two sessions”, China’s largest annual legislative meetings, and the unveiling of the country’s 15th five-year plan, which will guide socioeconomic development through to 2030.
With its focus on high technology, Shenzhen is a key element of those plans.
Its economy grew by an annualised rate of 5.5 per cent from 2.83 trillion yuan (US$411 billion) in 2020 to 3.87 trillion yuan in 2025, surpassing Beijing and Shanghai as the nation’s largest manufacturing and export hub.
The city hosts China’s largest cluster of “little giant” enterprises, small tech-driven manufacturers that have carved out important niches in specialised supply chains. It is also home to major Chinese tech firms such as Huawei Technologies, Tencent, DJI and BYD.
That hi-tech prowess will be in focus in November, when Shenzhen hosts this year’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit.

However, Shenzhen is facing major outside pressures, including Washington’s tech containment efforts in the form of tariffs and sanctions. The city is also grappling with internal challenges, including land scarcity, a property sector slump and weak local retail performance.
According to a work report delivered last month by mayor Qin Weizhong, the city will remain focused on a tech-fuelled growth model, particularly artificial intelligence, and is aiming for 5 per cent GDP growth this year.
Jin is no stranger to working in a tech-focused city, having previously held positions in Zhengzhou, home to a giant factory run by Foxconn Technologies, where most of the world’s iPhone handsets are assembled for American tech giant Apple.
Deyang, where he worked most recently, is also a major industrial base that is known as China’s city of equipment manufacturing.
Unlike Meng, who was both Shenzhen’s party chief and a provincial deputy party secretary during his time as the city’s head, Jin does not hold a provincial-level title other than his provincial standing committee membership.


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Jin Lei is appointed Communist Party chief of Shenzhen as the tech hub targets AI-fuelled growth and confronts external pressures


Jin Lei is appointed Communist Party chief of Shenzhen as the tech hub targets AI-fuelled growth and confronts external pressures.


Shenzhen

Huawei Technologies

Foxconn

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‘iPhone City’ veteran tapped as party boss of China’s Silicon Valley

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Jin Lei is appointed Communist Party chief of Shenzhen as the tech hub targets AI-fuelled growth and confronts external pressures

Jin Lei is appointed Communist Party chief of Shenzhen as the tech hub targets AI-fuelled growth and confronts external pressures