Hubei governor tipped as party head of Qinghai province ... but it may not be a good move for him, sources say

The governor of Hubei province has been named the party chief of the northwestern province of Qinghai, while the Qinghai party boss is tipped to be the party secretary of Shanxi province, sources say.

The changes could be part of a spate of high-ranking power reshuffles in the run-up to the Communist Party’s 19th National Congress.

The congress, which is scheduled to be held in autumn next year, will see major personnel movement.

Wang Guosheng would leave office after serving more than five years as governor of the central province of Hubei, according to a report carried by Shanghai-based news portal thepaper.cn.

Rising star from Chinese Communist Party’s Youth League tipped to become provincial governor

“Wang will soon be the party head of Qinghai province,” a source told the South China Morning Post, adding that the Organisation Department of the Communist Party’s Central Committee made the announcement in an internal meeting on Tuesday.

Pundits said the transfer might not be good for Wang, 60, especially as he had served more than 10 years in the affluent Jiangsu province.

Many high-ranking officials with close ties to Jiangsu had been in trouble over the past couple of years, they said.

Another source said that Wang Rulin, 60, the party chief of Shanxi province, would soon leave the resource-rich province, but his deputy Li Xiaopeng, Shanxi’s provincial governor and the elder son of former premier Li Peng, would not succeed him.

Instead, the second source said, Luo Huining, the party secretary of Qinghai province, might fill the vacancy left by Wang Rulin as party head of Shanxi province.