Personnel Shake-up at China's Civil Aviation Administration

By Liu Weixun

Published: 2010-11-03

Economic Observer Online
November 3, 2010
Translated by Zhang Chao
Original Article: [Chinese]

In the last half of this year, the Civil Aviation Administration of China's (CAAC) departments of General Economic Affairs, Air Transportation, Airports, Development Planning, Policies and Regulations and Flight Standards have all undergone significant changes in upper-level leadership. Sources close to the CAAC said, personnel changes in these departments were part of regular human resources adjustments and had nothing to do with recently exposed instances of corruption or the recent Yichun plane crash, which claimed the lives of 42 passengers and left another 54 injured.

The EO learned several days ago that Shi Boli, the former deputy director of the Department of Air Transportation would replace the department's bureau chief, Wang Ronghua, who is expected to retire soon. Additionally, former Development Planning bureau chief Wang Zhanbin will assume the position of party secretary of Air Traffic Control. Many other personnel changes are also planned.

The departments targeted by the personnel changes are all core working and administrative departments. For example the departments of Air Transportation and Development Planning are regarded as the CAAC's two most powerful departments.

According to the industry analysts, this year's changes are in line with the industry's tradition of internal personnel maneuvering. Most of the CAAC changes involve switching official between different departments within the administration. Although these changes may appear messy, analysts argue that they are in fact conducive to the smooth operation of the bureaucracy and also the training and development of officials.

Sources said the current changes have no direct relationship to recent corruption cases or the Yichun crash. In the string of corruption cases that broke out last year, Yu Renlu, the former Deputy Director of Civil Aviation Administration and several other highly-ranked officials were involved. After the August 24 airplane crash in Yichun, CAAC enhanced industry-wide safety supervision.

It is possible that CAAC has been influenced by both internal and external incidents because several CAAC officials have become more cautious in their addresses to the public. It is said that CAAC officials have been told to "do more and talk less."