In the wake of news about bad seafood, tainted toothpaste, fake drugs and lead-painted toys, China announced the appointment of a new health minister and only the second non-Party member to be named to a ministerial post since the 1970s. No reason was given for the change.

China’s official media said that China’s top legislature on Friday approved the cabinet nomination of Chen Zhu as the country’s new health minister. He is described as a Paris-trained scientist replacing 63-year-old Gao Qiang, who was assigned to the Health Ministry after former Health Minister Zhang Wenkang was sacked over the SARS crisis in 2003. Chen’s appointment is officially seen as a demonstration of both the Communist Party and the central government’s commitment to open up top jobs to non-party members and non-politically affiliated people. Former Minister Gao will serve as secretary of the ministry’s leading Party members’ group and vice minister, according to the document submitted by the State Council to the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress.

According to the news report, Chen obtained a master’s degree in medical science from Shanghai Second Medical University in 1981. He received his doctorate from the Institute of Hematology of Hospital Saint-Louis, connected to University Paris VII, in 1989. He was also involved in post-doctoral programs in the French institute. Chen won international acclaim for his achievements in the clinical and molecular study of the treatment of acute promyelocytic leukemia. He is an academician with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the French Academy of Sciences and the United States National Academy of Sciences.

Richard McGregor writing for the The Financial Times sees the appointment somewhat differently.

“. . . the manner of Mr Chen’s appointment underlined the limits of his real powers, even as a minister – in theory, the top job in the health bureaucracy. In a puzzling move, Gao Qiang, the present minister, was retained both as a vice-minister and as the secretary of the ministry’s Communist party committee, meaning he will continue to outrank the minister. Not being a party member, Mr Chen will be ineligible to attend the ministry’s party meetings, creating a potentially awkward relationship with other officials. Lacking party status and networks, he will also struggle to impose his own agenda on the ministry.”

Whatever the political terms of his appointment, Chen will have a demanding job and one that deserves the support of the world health community. How he will affect the government’s efforts in health care reform remains to be seen, but at the very least he should be on the radar screen of health policy makers given the enormous challenges he will be facing.