China considering veteran banker as next PBOC chief

Bloomberg

China is considering installing veteran banker Zhu Hexin as its next central bank governor, while a close ally of Xi Jinping is a likely candidate to become its Communist Party chief, the Wall Street Journal reported.
He Lifeng, expected to replace Liu He as China’s vice premier responsible for economic policy in a government reshuffle next month, is being considered for the role of party secretary at the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the paper reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
The appointment of He to the party secretary role at the PBOC would reduce the number of officials setting key
economic policies, further
centralising decision making under Xi. The appointments of Zhu, 54, and He would also reduce the role of academics at the PBOC.
The WSJ said the discussions weren’t final and could be subject to change.
If He, 68, is promoted to PBOC party secretary, it would be the first time since the 1990s that a vice premier responsible for economic policy would also have a senior role at the bank, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In what would be a further step towards centralising economic policy decisions, the ruling party plans to revive a committee that will coordinate financial policy across various ministries.
A revived Central Financial Work Commission could be headed by close Xi ally Li Qiang, who is expected to be made premier during the reshuffle next month, or Ding Xuexiang, Xi’s chief of staff, the WSJ
reported.
In recent years, the party secretary and governor roles at the PBOC have been split, with the former setting a general
direction for the bank and the
latter responsible for daily
operations.
He, who heads China’s state planning agency, is a close confidant of President Xi Jinping who has often accompanied him during travel in recent years. The pair have known each other since the 1980s.
He has a doctorate in economics but is not known as a theorist, and has spent almost his entire career as a government official.
The current PBOC party secretary is Guo Shuqing, an academic economist turned government official.
China’s current central bank governor, Yi Gang, was widely expected to step down after approaching the usual retirement age for senior officials, and he was dropped from a list of senior officials at the ruling party’s congress last year.
Zhu would be a contrast to the previous two governors of the PBOC. While Yi and his predecessor, Zhou Xiaochuan, were academic economists, Zhu does not have a reputation as an economic theorist.
Zhu spent most of his career in China’s state-owned banking system, serving as a PBOC vice governor before becoming chairman of state-owned financial conglomerate Citic Group Corp in 2020.
Under his watch, Citic played a major role in rescuing the troubled bad-debt manager China Huarong Asset Management Co.
Liu, China’s top economic official for the past decade, will step down from his current post but is expected to continue to play a role in US-China relations, the WSJ reported.