What’s new: Inner Mongolia has named its local head of the Social Work Department, the first provincial-level region to reveal a leader of the authority, created last year to better handle public complaints. The national-level organ operates directly under the Communist Party’s Central Committee.
The northern Chinese autonomous region has appointed Wu Zhiqiang, former director and party secretary of the region’s Public Complaints Bureau (PCB), as head of the local party committee’s Social Work Department, according to an article published on the local PCB’s official WeChat account Tuesday. The report referred to Wu using his new title as he conducted an inspection of the local PCB Monday.
The report also revealed three new deputy heads and an inspector, who attended the trip along with Wu, as part of the region’s new Social Work Department team. All three are former government officials from Inner Mongolia.
Meanwhile, East China’s Jiangsu province has appointed Hu Jianjun, former director of the provincial Food and Strategic Reserves Administration, to be deputy head of its Social Work Department as well as director of the local PCB, according to the province’s PCB website.
The background: The Social Work Department of the party’s Central Committee was established in March 2023 during a major restructuring of state and party institutions.
The department is tasked with overseeing how the country handles complaints and solicits opinions from the public, while leading the National Public Complaints and Proposals Administration.
Beijing named Wu Hansheng, a senior graft buster, as minister of the national Social Work Department of the Central Committee in July. Local-level institutional reforms are expected to be finished by the end of this year, according to the restructuring plan.
Contact reporter Kelly Wang (jingzhewang@caixin.com) and editor Jonathan Breen (jonathanbreen@caixin.com)
Get our weekly free Must-Read newsletter.
