The long-expected merger of China's two major state shipbuilding groups has moved a step closer with the appointment of Yang Jincheng, a top executive of China Shipbuilding Industry Corp (CSIC), as general manager of the southern group of shipyards.
Yang's move to China State Shipbuilding Corp (CSSC) follows the removal of his former boss at CSIC, the northern yard group, in a Communist Party purge.
The appointment and transfer may signal an increased emphasis on the military side of the shipbuilding giant's portfolio as it prepares for a rumoured merger.
Yang had been deputy general manager under general manager Sun Bo since May 2016.
His new role was made official last week at a special expanded meeting of group management with officials of the Communist Party's Central Organisation Department.
His former boss's detention by Communist Party investigators was announced two weeks ago. The Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) announced that Sun had been put under "disciplinary review and monitoring investigation" for alleged "suspected serious violations of laws and regulations".
Strengthening ties
Yang's move strengthens ties between top leadership of CSSC and CSIC, whose chairman Hu Wenming is the former head of CSSC. It also puts Yang as the northern group's top military shipbuilder in charge of the traditionally more commercially oriented southern group.
Yang, 55, was educated as an engineer and received a master's degree from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute for Plasma Physics in 1988. In that year he joined CSIC's 719th Research Institute, which is in charge of projects including nuclear submarine design and engineering as well as a project to build a fleet of floating nuclear power stations.
Yang served as head of the institute and in related Communist Party positions from 2002 until 2015, when he was elevated to a group-level executive role, serving as chief engineer, head of the CSIC's military department, and then deputy general manager.
Both groups are controlled by the State-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission (Sasac), the body that acts as shareholder of all China's central non-bank state owned enterprises (SOEs).
This article has been amended since publication to reflect that Yang Jincheng will become general manager at CSSC, leaving CSIC.
