The major metals deal maker now keeping watch on China’s biggest state firms
Technocrat and industry veteran Xiao Yaqing is the new face at Sasac, charged with overseeing the country’s biggest state-owned companies
The man behind China’s biggest offshore metals acquisition has become the chief watchdog overseeing 40 trillion yuan (HK$47 trillion) in major state-owned company assets.
Former State Council deputy secretary general Xiao Yaqing took office at the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac) early this week, replacing Zhang Yi as Beijing tries to steer the economy in a new growth direction.
Xiao, 57, has a doctorate in engineering and is regarded as a veteran technocrat.
The former chief executive of Aluminum Corporation of China (Chinalco), the country’s largest metal producer, spent seven years at the State Council helping vice-premiers map out policies and plans for a clutch of key sectors including telecommunications, energy and transport.
Zhang, 66, will continue on as Sasac’s Communist Party secretary, according to the commission’s website.
Xiao graduated from Central South University in Changsha, Hunan province, in 1982 before becoming a teacher at an institute attached to a state-owned metal producer in Harbin, Heilongjiang.