China Telecom announced that its interim chairman and CEO, Yang Jie, was appointed chairman and Yang Xiaowei was named director and general manager.

Yang Jie (pictured) took the helm at the end of December after Chang Xiaobing resigned as chairman and CEO after being detained on suspicion of “severe disciplinary violations”. Sources said the investigation of Chang stems from activity during his more than ten years as head of rival operator China Unicom. He joined China Telecom last August.

According to a stock market filing, Yang Jie, who was previously president and COO, was also appointed party committee chief of China Telecom. It is unknown whether he will keep his ‘interim’ CEO role or if the operator is looking for a new permanent candidate.

Yang Xiaowei — previously an executive director and EVP — will be deputy chief of party committee.

China Telecom, the county’s third largest operator with a 15 per cent market share, added nearly 16 million mobile connections over the past five quarters and expanded its 4G user base from seven million to 70 million, according to GSMA Intelligence. Rivals China Mobile and China Unicom had 365 million and 60 million 4G connections respectively at the end of Q1.