Wang Xinwei, member of the Standing Committee of the Liaoning Provincial CPC Committee and secretary of the Shenyang Municipal CPC Committee, was recently promoted to deputy secretary of the provincial party committee. In January this year, Yu Aihua, member of the Standing Committee of the Anhui Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Hefei Municipal Party Committee, was also promoted to deputy secretary of the provincial party committee. The two have the same path, and both are raised to the next level by the "top leader" of the provincial capital. The difference is that after Wang Xinwei was promoted, he continued to serve as secretary of the Shenyang Municipal Party Committee. Yu Aihua stepped down from the post of secretary of the Hefei Municipal Party Committee and has concurrently served as the president of the Party School of the Provincial Party Committee (dean of the Provincial School of Administration).
The deputy secretary of the provincial party committee, in addition to the secretary of the provincial party committee (usually concurrently serving as the chairman of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress), the provincial governor, the chairman of the provincial CPPCC and other principal positions, is the most high-ranking deputy position, so it is called the "first and deputy". The deputy secretary of the provincial party committee usually assists in the work of party affairs, but there are no clear rules on how to do so. Therefore, it has a large room for elasticity. Each provincial capital shall arrange the areas of responsibility of the deputy secretary of the provincial party committee according to the needs of the work and the characteristics of the cadre structure according to local conditions. Therefore, the deputy secretaries of the provincial party committees in each province have different part-time jobs.
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He is also in charge of the central city
The first is to concurrently serve as the secretary of the provincial capital and municipal party committee. In recent years, many provinces have taken the expansion and strengthening of provincial capitals as a priority strategy to promote economic construction and development and enhance the competitiveness of the whole region, and the status of the secretary of the provincial capital municipal party committee has become more prominent. Since last year, Liu Jie, member of the Standing Committee of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Hangzhou Municipal Party Committee, Shi Xiaolin, member of the Standing Committee of the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Chengdu Municipal Party Committee, and Zhang Anshun, member of the Standing Committee of the Heilongjiang Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Harbin Municipal Party Committee, have all been promoted to deputy secretaries of the provincial party committee. Liu Jie and Shi Xiaolin are Wang Xinwei's model, and they continued to be in charge of the provincial capital after being promoted to deputy secretary of the provincial party committee. Zhang Anshun, like Yu Aihua, stepped down as the leader of the provincial capital.
In most cases, the secretary of the provincial capital party committee is promoted to the deputy secretary of the provincial party committee, but there is also the opposite path, that is, the cadre who has served as the deputy secretary of the provincial (district) party committee concurrently serves as the secretary of the provincial capital (capital) party committee. For example, in May last year, He Zhongyou, deputy secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Party Committee, concurrently served as secretary of the Urumqi Municipal Party Committee.
The second is to concurrently serve as the secretary of the municipal party committee of other regional central cities in the province. At present, there are two cases in the country, namely Meng Fanli, deputy secretary of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee, and Wu Zhongqiong, deputy secretary of the Jiangxi Provincial Party Committee and secretary of the Ganzhou Municipal Party Committee. Since the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, a number of deputy secretaries of provincial party committees who are not secretaries of provincial capitals and municipal party committees have been promoted to important positions. Zhao Gang, deputy secretary of the Shaanxi Provincial CPC Committee and secretary of the Yan'an City CPC Committee, was promoted to governor of the province; Hu Yuting, deputy secretary of the Liaoning Provincial CPC Committee and secretary of the Dalian City CPC Committee, went north to take up the post of governor of Jilin Province; and Lu Zhiyuan, deputy secretary of the Shandong Provincial CPC Committee and secretary of the Qingdao City CPC Committee, went to Beijing to take up the post of minister of civil affairs.
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He is in charge of politics and law to maintain stability
The third situation is to concurrently serve as the secretary of the Political and Legal Committee. This is also the current arrangement of many provinces. Political and legal work involves a wide range of areas, especially in the "public procuratorate, procuratorate, and law," and the top leaders are all vice-provincial-level officials, the director of the public security department is usually concurrently served by the vice governor, and the president of the provincial high people's court and the chief procurator of the provincial procuratorate are the statutory vice-provincial officials. The deputy secretary of the provincial party committee concurrently serves as the secretary of the political and legal committee, which is more rational in terms of coordination.
At present, the officials who are deputy secretaries of the provincial (regional) party committees and secretaries of the political and legal committees include Shi Hui in Guizhou, Shen Danyang in Hainan, Sun Meijun in Henan, Liu Jiang in Tibet, and Yang Weidong in Inner Mongolia. Wu Qing, the new chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, also served as deputy secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and secretary of the Political and Legal Committee.
Fourth, he also serves as the president of the Party School (Dean of the School of Administration). The School of Administration and the Party School are "one institution, two brands". Each province has different aspects of the allocation of the "number one" in party schools, and there are mainly three ways. First, the "number one" of the party committee personally served as the leader. For example, Sun Shaocheng, secretary of the party committee of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and Wang Junzheng, secretary of the party committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region, concurrently serve as the principals of local party schools. The second is the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and the head of the Organization Department, such as Zhuang Zhaolin in Jiangxi, Zhao Yuexia in Qinghai, and Hu Lijie in Shanxi. Third, the deputy secretary of the provincial (autonomous regional, municipal) party committee concurrently serves, such as Liu Wei in Beijing, Chen Xiangkuan in Tianjin, Yu Aihua in Anhui, Li Dianxun in Hunan, Zhang Anshun in Heilongjiang, and Zhang Zhu in Xinjiang.
Fifth, Li Dianxun, deputy secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, and Zhang Anshun, deputy secretary of the Heilongjiang Provincial Party Committee, concurrently serve as secretaries of the Education Work Committee of the Provincial Party Committee. The Education Working Committee is the department responsible for party building in the field of education. In Beijing and Tianjin, there is a member of the Standing Committee of the Provincial Party Committee who also serves as the secretary of the Education Working Committee. In most other provinces, the head of the Propaganda Department of the Provincial Party Committee or the Director of the Provincial Department of Education concurrently serves as the Secretary of the Education Working Committee.
Generally speaking, the provincial party committee is a "one principal and two deputies" pattern, and in addition to the secretary and governor, there is only one full-time deputy secretary. The Xinjiang and Tibet autonomous regions have more posts. Xinjiang currently has four deputy secretaries, and in addition to Erken Tuniyaz, chairman of the regional government, among the other three deputy secretaries, Li Yifei is also the secretary of the party committee and political commissar of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, He Zhongyou is also the secretary of the Urumqi city party committee, and Zhang Zhu is concurrently the head of the organization department in addition to the president of the party school, but the latter is a temporary transitional phenomenon.
Tibet has long been appointed as a standard deputy secretary, two of whom are chairman of the Standing Committee of the Autonomous Regional People's Congress and chairman of the government, and the other two are executive vice chairman of the government, executive deputy secretary of the party committee, and secretary of the CPPCC party group. In 2023, after being elected vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, Lobsang Jiangcun, deputy secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Party Committee and chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, continued to serve as chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, but stepped down as deputy secretary of the regional party committee. In August of the same year, Zhuang Yan, deputy secretary of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Party Committee and secretary of the CPPCC leading party group, was transferred to the post of deputy secretary of the Ningxia Autonomous Regional Party Committee. At present, Tibet has three deputy secretaries: Yan Jinhai is chairman of the regional government, Chen Yongqi is executive vice chairman of the government, and Liu Jiang is also secretary of the political and legal committee. For the time being, there is no deputy secretary of the People's Congress or the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
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Extensive participation in deliberative and coordinating bodies
Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, and also serves as a concurrently in the committee, leading group and other deliberative and coordinating bodies. For example, according to public reports, Li Dianxun, deputy secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee, concurrently serves as a member of the Financial and Economic Committee of the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial Party Committee, deputy director of the National Security Committee of the Provincial Party Committee, deputy director of the Provincial Committee for Comprehensively Deepening Reform, deputy director of the Provincial Committee for Comprehensively Governing the Provincial Committee in accordance with the Law, and deputy director of the Provincial Party Committee's Cyber Security and Informatization Committee. The deputy secretaries of other provincial party committees are basically in line with this.
Another example, Shi Moujun, deputy secretary of the Gansu Provincial Party Committee, is also the head of the Provincial Party Committee's Leading Group for Veterans' Affairs and the Provincial Party Committee's Education Work Leading Group. Zhang Anshun, deputy secretary of the Heilongjiang Provincial Party Committee, is also the deputy head of the Provincial Party Committee's Party Building Work Leading Group and the deputy head of the Provincial Party Committee's United Front Work Leading Group. Liu Jie, deputy secretary of the Zhejiang Provincial Party Committee, is also the deputy head of the Provincial Party Committee's Rural Work Leading Group. Liu Qifan, deputy secretary of the Qinghai Provincial Party Committee, is also the deputy head of the Provincial Party Committee's Talent Work Leading Group. This fully reflects the extensive nature of the deputy secretary of the provincial party committee in charge and participation in the work, and highlights the importance of the post.
Text | Ma Haoliang
This article was first published in the 8th issue of Hong Kong's Economic Herald in 2024
This article is an original manuscript produced by the Hong Kong Economic Herald
Reproduction is subject to authorization and the source is indicated