Beijing mayor Chen Jining in ‘surprise’ promotion to top job in Shanghai
- Chen was said to have arrived in Shanghai on Thursday evening and an official announcement was made on Friday
- Appointment seen as part of President Xi Jinping’s strategy to put people with strong scientific backgrounds into key roles
The official announcement was made on Friday morning by state news agency Xinhua. Chen had arrived in Shanghai on Thursday evening, sources told the Post.
Yin Yong, deputy party chief of Beijing, was named acting mayor of the city. At 53 he is one of the youngest ministerial-level cadres in China.
Chen, 58, is an environmental scientist who studied at Tsinghua University and also has a doctorate from Imperial College London.
Six of the 13 new members of the Politburo have strong science and tech backgrounds.
It will also be an important move for Chen’s political career – the Shanghai party secretary post usually paves the way for further elevation to the Politburo Standing Committee. Xi himself is an example of this.
Chen stayed on as a research associate at Imperial College London after obtaining a doctorate in civil and environmental engineering in 1993.
He moved to Beijing in 1998, taking up the role of vice-dean of Tsinghua University’s Department of Environmental Science and Engineering in 1998. He became the university’s vice-president in 2006, then its president in 2012.
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Chen has also been involved in environmental policy in various government advisory capacities, and entered politics in 2015, becoming minister of environmental protection. He was one the youngest ministers in China’s cabinet at the time. He became deputy party boss of Beijing in 2017, then its mayor the following year.
Chen is also among the political rising stars – including Li Xi, Huang Kunming, Zhang Guoqing and Li Ganjie – who studied at Tsinghua University, Xi’s alma mater.
Chen Xi, who is expected to step down as Organisation Department chief, crossed paths with Chen Jining when the former was party chief of Tsinghua University from 2002 to 2008. Chen Xi was also a classmate of Xi’s at university and has been in charge of key personnel changes in the past five years.
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Some Shanghai officials have expressed surprise about Chen’s appointment since he does not have a background in the city – he has been based in Beijing for most of his academic and political career.
But Xie Maosong, a senior fellow at the Taihe Institute and senior researcher with the National Institute of Strategic Studies at Tsinghua University, said Chen fit Xi’s criteria for promotion as a loyalist with a strong professional background.
He said that Xi was following a Mao Zedong era slogan, “you hong you zhuan” – meaning those who have both political loyalty and the necessary knowledge to carry the party’s agenda – when deciding who to elevate.
Xie said that Chen’s time as environment minister indicated he had the skills to tackle interest groups and “get the job done”.
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He added that Chen’s ability to deliver on Xi’s policy goals would also be a key reason he was selected for the top job in Shanghai.
“Environmental targets are a major political goal laid down by the party leadership,” Xie said. “Chen, and Li Ganjie, have both served as environment ministers, and they both delivered visible results. For instance, Beijing now sees a lot more blue sky and less haze.”
Chen was also an executive chairman on the Beijing Organising Committee for the 2022 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. China hailed the success of its tough Covid-19 policy in managing to avoid an outbreak in the capital when it hosted the Games in February.
Additional reporting by Daniel Ren
