context: The Central United Front Department and Central Organisation Department are two of the major functional departments of the CPC. The former is in charge of liaison work—cultivating favourable public opinion within the PRC and fostering a beneficial strategic environment abroad. The latter is in charge of the Leninist nomenklatura system in the PRC, dictating major appointments in Party-state positions. In early April, it was reported that the heads of the two departments had swapped positions, which is extremely unconventional per Party norms.
Politburo member and Central Secretariat secretaries Shi Taifeng 石泰峰 and Li Ganjie 李干杰 have swapped leadership positions, reports Caixin.
According to Xinhua, on 2 April 2025
- Shi, now Central Organisation Department head, listened to reports by United Front units on anti-corruption education
- Li, now CUFD (Central United Front Department) head, hosted a conference on democratic supervision over ecological protection in Yangtze
They were the head of each other’s current department.
Shi served in the Central Party School for over 25 years
- studied law in both his bachelor's and master’s degrees
- taught at the Central Party School after graduation
- ascended to vice-president in 2001
- mainly researched legal sociology, comparative law and rule-of-law development in the PRC
- served as a Standing Committee and Legal Affairs Commission member of the 11th NPC (National People’s Congress)
- led localities since 2010, having served in Jiangsu, Suzhou, Ningxia and Inner Mongolia
- returned to research after his tenure at Inner Mongolia
- served as Chinese Academy of Social Science head
- appointed 13th NPC Education, Science, Culture and Public Health Committee vice director
- gaining momentum in the Central Committee
- was an alternate member in the 18th Central Committee
- became a formal member in the 19th and 20th Central Committee
- appointed CUFD head in October 2022
- now the 14th Organisation Department head since reform and opening up
Li, meanwhile, has a long history in the ecological management system of the PRC
- leadership roles in environment
- the former director of the State Nuclear Security Bureau
- State Environmental Protection Administration
- Nuclear Security Department head
- vice director
- shifted to local governance twice
- appointed Hebei provincial vice secretary in 2016
- returned to the Ministry of Environmental Protection in 2017 as minister
- youngest minister at the time
- appointed Shandong governor in 2020 and Party secretary in 2021
- appointed Hebei provincial vice secretary in 2016
- path to the Central Committee
- was a member of the 19th and 20th Central Committee
- elevated as the youngest Politburo member in the 20th First Plenum
- replaced Chen Xi 陈希 as Organisation Department head in 2023
- now the 12th CUFD head since reform and opening up