Chen Quanguo, who oversaw the alleged repression of ethnic Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region, is stepping down, according to the Chinese media.

The Communist Party chief in China's far northwest Xinjiang region, where Beijing is accused of having carried out a massive crackdown on Muslim minorities, is leaving the post after some seven years, Chinese state-run media said on Sunday.

Chen Quanguo, who is on a US blacklist for his role in the alleged mistreatment of ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslims, is to be replaced by Ma Xingrui, governor of Guangdong province.

    • invalidusernamelol [he/him]M
      ·
      3 years ago

      He's the party secretary in an autonomous region, not the regional governor. There's some separation between the party secretaries and the reginal governors, though they're often both members of the CPC because that's the biggest political party in all of China including the autonomous regions.

    • TeethOrCoat [none/use name]
      ·
      3 years ago

      He's not the governor. In this case, I've heard on twitter this move was done because XJ is going to transition from stability/counter-terrorism to a larger focus on development and high tech (the guy was in charge of PRC's space program at one point) as part of BRI and common prosperity. Interestingly, this coincides with a new plan to build a financial center in the Chengdu-Chongqing area for BRI.

    • NewAccountWhoDis [she/her]
      ·
      3 years ago

      This actually happens a lot in China, Xi Jinping himself lead like five or six (somewhere around there, not like Im commiting this to memory) provinces before he was allowed to start working more in the higher ups of the party.

      I agree that there might be some room for concern about representation not existing at that very top level but in theory at least local representatives would be working with these more experienced heads directly and help guide them into individualized policies.