Demotion of former Xinjiang chief sparks speculation in China
Jun 23, 2022
Beijing [China], June 23 : The former chief of China's Xinjiang region, who was replaced last year is now working in a senior agricultural post elsewhere in the country, according to media report.
The demotion of the official predicted that China's President Xi Jinping is interested in easing tensions with the United States ahead of the national congress, where he is tipped to secure a third term as leader of the Chinese Communist Party.
However, it had been unclear where Chen Quanguo was working after he was shifted from his role as the CCP's chief.
Xinhua News Agency last week reported that Chen had attended a June 14 meeting on the agricultural policy as deputy head of the party's so-called Central Rural Work Leading Group. Vice Premier Hu Chunhua heads the group, as per Nikkei Asia.
Citing a source, Nikkei Asia reported that this marked an effective demotion in the run-up to the national congress, with Chen unlikely to reappear on the front line of the party given that he is 66 years old.
It is also unclear whether he can survive as a Politburo member.
Chen is considered as the person behind the draconian security apparatus in Tibet and a mastermind behind the camps in Xinjiang which incarcerate over a million Uyghur minorities.
In 2020, he was sanctioned by the US for serious rights abuses against ethnic minorities in Xinjiang.
"XUAR is the regional government of Xinjiang and falls under the governance of the PRC. Chen Quanguo (Chen) is the Party Secretary of the XUAR, a position he was appointed to in 2016, following Chen's notorious history of intensifying security operations in the Tibetan Autonomous Region to tighten control over the Tibetan ethnic minorities," US treasury department had said in a release.
Last month, several billboards were put in the streets of London demanding the arrest of Chen Quanguo. The message on the boards urged the United Kingdom to act against the Chinese leader for the repression of Uyghurs and Tibetan communities.
