What’s new: China named public finance specialist Lan Foan (蓝佛安) to be its new finance minister, replacing Liu Kun, state broadcaster CCTV reported Tuesday.
The appointment was widely expected after Lan was named Communist Party chief of the Ministry of Finance in late September. He previously served as the party chief of Shanxi province. The 66-year-old Liu’s five-year term expired.
Lan, 61, takes the helm at a crucial time for China’s financial system as many local governments are under pressure after three years of heavy spending during the pandemic even as their income from selling land to developers plummeted amid a protracted property market slump.
Lan faces an array of challenges in continuing to advance fiscal system changes and fiscal and taxation system restructuring while helping to maintain steady growth and industrial transformation through fiscal policy.
Background: Lan has extensive experience in public finance. He spent most of his career in Guangdong province as a government official and was appointed vice-governor in 2016.
In 2001, he became deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Finance, a position he held until 2007. During that period, Guangdong was a pioneer in areas such as financial performance evaluations and fiscal spending overhauls.
In March 2017, he became a standing committee member of the Hainan Provincial Communist Party Committee and secretary of the provincial discipline inspection commission. In 2021, he was tapped to be governor of North China’s Shanxi province. He left that position in December 2022 to become the provincial Communist Party secretary.
Contact reporter Han Wei (weihan@caixin.com) and editor Bob Simison (bob.simison@caixin.com)
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