Gree Electric and Dong Mingzhu usher in new leadership

Fame brings gossip. As a hot-selling entrepreneur in China's home appliance industry, every move of Gree Electric Appliances' CEO Dong Mingzhu has attracted attention from the outside world, and may even be over-interpreted and misinterpreted. Recently, Gree Electric Appliances welcomed its first party secretary sent by the government, which once again pushed Gree Electric Appliances and Dong Mingzhu to the center of public opinion.

A piece of paper stirs up a thousand waves. Recently, a cadre appointment notice that "Li Xupeng, deputy director and party group member of Zhuhai Science and Technology and Industrial Information Bureau, is to be appointed as deputy secretary of the Zhuhai Gree Group Party Committee and secretary of the Gree Electric Party Committee" quickly attracted the attention and heated discussion of the home appliance industry on Gree Electric and its chairman and president Dong Mingzhu in just a few hours.

The Paper and other media have confirmed that this is true. Li Xupeng will take up a post at Gree Electric Appliances in the near future. He will concurrently serve as the Party Secretary of Gree Electric Appliances as the Deputy Party Secretary of Gree Group, mainly to better carry out his work. In response to this, in just over a day, public opinion has speculated that Zhuhai sent a new leader to Gree Electric Appliances to prevent Dong Mingzhu from having the final say, or even to lay out a plan for the post-Dong Mingzhu era of Gree Electric Appliances.

In fact, this is another major personnel adjustment around Gree Group and Gree Electric Appliances after Dong Mingzhu resigned as the chairman, director and legal representative of Gree Group last year. Although this is just an important measure for the Zhuhai Municipal Government, as the major shareholder of Gree Group and Gree Electric Appliances, to improve the construction of party organizations in municipal enterprises and strengthen the legal status of party organizations in the governance of state-owned enterprises. However, due to Dong Mingzhu's special status in Gree Electric Appliances and her influence in the home appliance industry, every move involving Gree Electric Appliances will arouse great attention from the outside world, and even excessive reactions and speculation.

It should be noted that whether it is central enterprises, state-owned enterprises, or local state-owned enterprises, the situation where the company chairman is also the party secretary, or the situation where the company chairman and party secretary are held by dedicated persons, is common. However, in the past year, the central government has clearly stated that "upholding the party's leadership over state-owned enterprises is a major political principle that must be adhered to; establishing a modern enterprise system is the direction of state-owned enterprise reform and must also be adhered to." Under this general background, state-owned enterprises from the central to local governments have improved the status of party organizations in the process of enterprise development and governance, and are promoting the chairman and party secretary to no longer shoulder the same responsibility.

The Zhuhai Municipal Government’s establishment of a party organization in Gree Electric for the first time and sending the first party secretary is an inevitable measure to implement the relevant provisions of the central policy. The reason why Li Xupeng, deputy director of the Zhuhai Science and Technology Bureau, was chosen as the party secretary of Gree Electric instead of Dong Mingzhu, is very simple: Dong Mingzhu is not a member of the Communist Party of China. Currently, she is a member of the Central Committee of the China Democratic National Construction Association among the democratic parties. Therefore, the fact that Gree Electric has welcomed its first party secretary does not mean that the government has already had ideas about Dong Mingzhu and wants to supervise and check her. It can only be said that this is in accordance with the central regulations to strengthen the leadership role of the party organization in the development of the local state-owned enterprise Gree Electric.

At present, as Dong Mingzhu has entered a new journey of life at the age of 60, the issue of succession of Gree Electric Appliances, a municipal state-owned enterprise, has long been included in the vision of the local government. Therefore, promoting the healthy and sustainable development of Gree Electric Appliances, especially accelerating the rapid implementation of Gree Electric Appliances' transformation and upgrading, is a common task faced by Zhuhai and Dong Mingzhu. Of course, as the current head, whether Dong Mingzhu and the government have the same ideas on the issue of succession still needs time to run in, but in order to promote the healthy and sustainable operation of municipal state-owned enterprises, it is necessary for the government to reserve talents in advance.

At present, the outside world should not over-interpret the fact that Gree Electric has welcomed its first party secretary, but it should not be ignored either. First of all, this is not simply the government sending a party committee leader, nor is it a complicated government to replace Dong Mingzhu's leadership position, but to strengthen the party's legal position in the leadership of state-owned enterprises. Secondly, for Zhuhai and Dong Mingzhu, it is their unshirkable obligation and responsibility to promote the healthy development of Gree Electric, an excellent enterprise in China's home appliance industry, and they must not lose sight of the big picture for the sake of small details.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.