China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) appointed Shen Hongbing as its new head, replacing George Gao Fu, according to an announcement made Tuesday.
Gao, 60, will “no longer serve as director of the CDC due to his age,” stated the announcement published on the CDC website.
Public information shows that Gao was born in November 1961 and that Shen, his successor, was born in May 1964. Gao was appointed director of the CDC in Aug. 2017.
Shen is a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a former president of Nanjing Medical University.
Official retirement rules stipulate that male government officials “can retire” when reaching 60 years of age. But there are many cases of Chinese officials aged 60 who either stay in their positions or are transferred or promoted to positions in other departments….