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. READ MORE: Overhaul of Chinese state-owned firms splits them into commercial and not-for-profit operations He was an engineer, chief engineer and chief executive of several state-owned metal companies between 1985 and 2003 before becoming vice-president of Chinalco and then its chief in 2004. He launched a series of big asset deals, aiming to turn Chinalco into a diversified, international industrial major. In 2008, Chinalco teamed up with Alcoa to buy a US$14 billion stake in Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto. Xiao said at the time that Chinalco needed to acquire offshore mining assets to broaden its business scope. “If we focus on just metal production we will face slower growth in the future,” Caixin quoted him as saying in 2008. “If we don’t diversify or internationalise our businesses now, potential mergers between the international mining giants will eventually leave us with a slim chance for further growth.” READ MORE: Bosses of China Mobile, Unicom and Telecom reshuffled as Beijing revamps state-owned telecommunications firms Xiao moved on to the State Council in 2009, just as Chinalco’s plans to invest another US$19.5 billion in Rio Tinto reached a critical stage. The deal was later scrapped. Some analysts said Xiao helped to expand Chinalco’s operations while others questioned the virtue of his strategy, given chronic overcapacity among China’s manufacturers. Before the new appointment, Xiao was helping Vice-Premier Ma Kai to take charge of the industrial sector. Zhang, the former party boss of Ningxia became Sasac’s party secretary in 2013, the same year that Jiang Jiemin, former head of China National Petroleum Corporation, was appointed chairman of the state-owned assets watchdog. Zhang took on both roles after Jiang was arrested on corruption charges. Jiang was sentenced to 16 years in prison last year.