China's Xi mines state firms for political jobs before reshuffle

(June 22): As President Xi Jinping prepares for a shuffling of China’s senior leaders later this year, a new path to power has emerged: the US$20 trillion ($27.7 trillion) state sector.

Over the past two years, Xi has installed eight former executives from state-owned enterprises in top provincial leadership posts across China. That’s double the four ex-corporate managers who were serving among the country’s 62 regional Communist Party secretaries and governors ahead of the last big leadership reshuffle in 2012.

Those promoted included Guangdong Governor Ma Xingrui, a former executive at the main contractor for China’s space program, and Chongqing Mayor Zhang Guoqing, who rose up through the country’s biggest maker of guns and tanks. Hunan Governor Xu Dazhe previously helped run a manufacturer of spacecraft and missile systems.

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