State media announced on Sunday that Jin Lei, 56, has been appointed Shenzhen's Communist Party chief, as well as a member of the Guangdong provincial party committee and its standing committee. The economist and former Sichuan official replaces Meng Fanli, who held the post since April 2022, as the tech hub eyes AI-fuelled growth.
State media announced on Sunday that Jin Lei, 56, had been appointed Shenzhen’s party chief as well as a member of the Guangdong provincial party committee and its standing committee. Jin, an economist and former official in the southwestern province of Sichuan, takes over from Meng Fanli, who had been in the position since April 2022. Born in the central province of Henan in 1970, Jin obtained a bachelor’s degree from Wuhan University’s political science department in 1992 and was awarded a master’s degree in economics from Xiamen University in 2002, according to the Shenzhen-based Securities Times. Shenzhen, known as China’s Silicon Valley, is targeting AI-fuelled growth amid external pressures. Keywords mention Zhengzhou as ‘iPhone City’, with ties to Foxconn Technologies, Apple, Huawei Technologies, DJI and BYD, suggesting Jin’s veteran status in that context. The appointment underscores Guangdong’s role in hi-tech development.
