China to Shake Up Financial System as Xi Jinping Installs Key Associates, Wall Street Journal, Feb. 23, 2023.

By Keith ZhaiFollow and Lingling Wei

Zhu Hexin and He Lifeng, two close associates of China’s leader, have emerged as leading candidates for top positions at the country’s central bank.


Chinese leader Xi Jinping is preparing to shake up the leadership of the country’s financial system, installing key associates to run the central bank and reviving a Communist Party body to tighten political control over financial affairs, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The moves are a continuation of efforts by Mr. Xi to reshape the world’s second-largest economy. In recent years, the central bank and other financial regulators have continued to lose their already fading independent status amid Mr. Xi’s broader effort to strengthen the party’s rule.
(To be continued…)