China Unicom ended a ten-month search for a successor to president Li Guohua, appointing former deputy GM at rival China Telecom Chen Zhongyue (pictured) to the role.

In a brief statement, China Unicom said Chen is second in command behind chairman and CEO Wang Xiaochu, with the new executive also named deputy party secretary and director.

Li stepped down in March 2020 after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60.

Executive shuffles between the big three Chinese operators occur periodically: one of the biggest recent shifts involved China Telecom chairman Yang Jie replacing Shang Bing as the head of China Mobile in March 2019.

Among the challenges Chen faces at China Unicom is stemming subscriber losses: in the year to end-November it lost 14.2 million users, leaving it with 307.1 million.

The operator is also in the process of building its 5G business, but is yet to reveal progress in terms of customer numbers.