China names Pan Gongsheng to lead central bank, succeeding Yi Gang
China's ceremonial legislation has endorsed the promotion of Pan Gongsheng to serve as central bank governor
BEIJING (AP) — Pan Gongsheng was named China’s central bank governor Tuesday in the widely anticipated final major appointment of the ruling Communist Party’s once-a-decade change of power.
Pan, a deputy central bank governor and veteran of China’s state-owned banking industry, succeeds Yi Gang, an American-trained economist who held the post for five years. The endorsement of Pan's promotion by the ceremonial legislature, the National People’s Congress, follows other Cabinet-level appointments announced in March.
Pan, who turns 60 this month, met July 8 with visiting U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, indicating he was being promoted. He was widely assumed to be in line for the job after he was named Communist Party secretary for the central bank.
Pan earned a Ph.D. in economics from Renmin University in Beijing and did research at Cambridge and Harvard Universities.
