CHINA-INTERNAL; LEADERSHIP
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China's official newsagency Xinhua on June 30, 2016, announced the appointment of Xu Lin, Deputy Director at the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) since June last year and formerly propaganda chief of Shanghai, as Director of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs. He will take over from 56-year old Lu Wei, the high-profile cyber chief who famously met with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during a visit to the US in 2014, who will retain his position as a Deputy Director in the CCP CC's Propaganda Department. (Comments: Xu Lin is said to a trusted associate of Xi Jinping, having first worked with him directly for several months when Xi was Party secretary of Shanghai. Xu Lin became a member of Shanghai’s Party committee in May 2007, just two months after Xi Jinping’s arrival from Zhejiang. Xu, then just 44 years old, was dubbed a “political star” (政治明星) in a page-one story in the 21st Century Business Herald. In a speech in November 2015, Xu Lin had urged journalists to “adhere to correct guidance of public opinion, energetically propagate socialist core values, strengthen the [Party’s] mainstream voice and win their campaigns in the online public opinion struggle.” When Xi Jinping was appointed Shanghai Party Secretary in 2007, Xinhua had pointed to Xu Lin as a 'political star" and said he also had experience working in Tibet. At the age of 32, he became Deputy Secretary of Shigatse Prefecture in Tibet, serving there for 3 years and became the first Shanghai cadre to serve in Tibet. He returned to Shanghai at the age of 35.)
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