(TibetanReview.net, Sep23’26) – The new Party chief of Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR), Mr Hu Changsheng, has on Sep 22 vowed to fully and absolutely implement Beijing’s top policy measures there that include building ethnic unity, opposing separatism and strengthening the management of religious affairs.
Hu, 62, has been the party chief of Gansu province since late 2022. Qinghai’s party chief, Wu Xiaojun, is taking over Hu’s post in Gansu, while Qinghai Governor Luo Dongchuan has been promoted to Qinghai party chief, reported China’s official Xinhua news agency Sep 22.
Both Gansu and Qinghai have significant Tibetan populations. The former includes Kanlho (Chinese: Gannan) prefecture, which was part of the traditional Tibetan province of Amdo (or Domey), while Qinghai constitutes the bulk of Amdo.
The reshuffle announced on Sep 22 took place ahead of a key party conclave set for October and the 21st Communist Party Congress expected in autumn 2027. Such regional transfers offer clues about broader political line-up ahead of national party congress, said scmp.com Sep 22.
Hu has assumed his post at a meeting in Tibet’s capital Lhasa on Sep 22 itself, with pledges to “remain unswervingly and absolutely loyal to the party,” safeguard lasting peace and stability in Tibet, forge ethnic unity and to “intensify the struggle against separatism and strengthen the rule-of-law-based management of religious affairs,” reported Reuters Sep 22, citing state media.
His predecessor, Wang Junzheng, 63, would no longer serve as TAR’s party chief after five years on the job due to his age, a Xinhua report was stated to show.
Before coming to TAR, Wang was the secretary of the Party Committee of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps—a state-owned economic and paramilitary organization—where he was accused of perpetrating serious human rights violations against the Uyghur people. He was put on an unprecedented coordinated sanctions list of the United States, Canada, Britain and the European Union in Mar 2021.
Hu, the TAR’s new Party Secretary, spent the early years of his career in Sichuan province – which includes the historical Tibetan regions of Kardze (Ganzi) and Ngaba (Aba) – before transferring to Qinghai in 2015. In 2017, he was sent to Fujian province, where he headed the provincial party organisation department. He was appointed party secretary of the city of Xiamen in 2019 and was promoted to deputy party secretary of Fujian in 2020 while continuing as Xiamen’s party secretary, noted the scmp.com report.
President Xi Jinping spent more than a decade working in Fujian, where he served as party secretary of the provincial capital Fuzhou from 1990 to 1996, and as the province’s deputy party secretary from 1995 to 2002.
Luo Dongchuan, 60, the new Party secretary of Qinghai, has a background in law and holds a doctorate in the field. He earlier served in Beijing’s local courts and the Supreme People’s Court and at the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. He was the head of the regional commission for discipline inspection in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region from 2017 to 2018, returned to the Supreme People’s Court as vice-president, worked in Fujian as chief of the provincial political and legal affairs commission from 2020 to 2021, and as the provincial deputy party secretary from 2021 to 2024.
Luo was made the deputy party secretary of Qinghai in 2024 and its governor last year, the report said.
Wu, the new Party chief of Gansu, spent most of his career in Jiangxi province until being relocated to Qinghai in 2021. He was appointed the governor of Qinghai in 2022 and party secretary in 2024, the report said.
Provincial party chiefs hold significant political influence in China, making such appointments closely watched ahead of a national congress, noted firstpost.com Sep 22.