As expected, China Mobile announced on Monday the departure of chairman Xi Guohua.
Taking his place is Shang Bing, vice minister at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the telco said in a brief statement.
Rumours of a leadership change at China Mobile emerged late last week in reports by Bloomberg and local news outlet Caijing.
The reports claimed that similar changes are afoot at China Telecom and China Unicom.
China Mobile is the world’s largest operator by mobile subscribers, with 818.8 million as of 31 July.
It enjoys a comfortable lead over China Telecom and China Unicom, which had 192.3 million and 288.4 million mobile customers respectively on the same date.
The government doubtless hopes that overhauling the leadership at China Mobile – and potentially China Telecom and China Unicom – will help it to reach the targets outlined in its Broadband China programme.
The aim of the policy is to provide nationwide broadband coverage by 2020, and to that end it has earmarked an eye-watering US$327 billion for infrastructure investment.
