China abruptly replaces tech czar behind AI and chip push

Jin Zhuanglong Photographer: Sean Gallup/Getty Images

China has abruptly replaced the nation’s tech czar who oversees Beijing’s efforts to build a world-class, cutting-edge chip industry and rival the US as a high-tech superpower.

Jin Zhuanglong, a 60-year-old aerospace expert, is no longer listed as party secretary of the Ministry of Industries and Information Technology, after he disappeared from public view last December fueling speculation about his position.

The ministry, which oversees a wide spectrum of areas from China’s moonshot effort in chipmaking to overcapacity issues in electric vehicles, said in a statement Friday that Li Lecheng now occupied that role, without giving a reason for the change. Li, 60, has been working as Liaoning provincial governor since 2022.

Jin, who hasn’t reached retirement age, is still listed as the nation’s minister of industry and information technology. Removing that title requires the nation’s top legislative body, and could be announced at next week’s annual parliamentary huddle.

President Xi Jinping has ousted three sitting ministers since unveiling his latest cabinet in 2023, as a sweeping campaign to clean up the Communist Party rolls on. That purge has seen the removal of ex-Foreign Minister Qin Gang, former Defense Minister Li Shangfu and ex-Agriculture Minister Tang Renjian. It’s unclear whether Jin’s removal is related to corruption.

Once commander-in-chief of the country’s first wide-body passenger plane, Jin was later named an executive deputy director of a central commission overseeing military-civilian integration in 2017. He replaced Xiao Yaqing in 2022 after his predecessor fell from grace for taking bribes. Xiao was eventually demoted and retired, according to the country’s top graft buster.

Jin’s ministry regulates the country’s heavy industry, automobile, telecoms and electronics sectors. In November, Jin met with Apple Inc.’s Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook in Beijing, urging the company to continue investing more in innovation in China.