Wang Yang, the charismatic party secretary of Guangdong, China’s most industrialised province and its export powerhouse, is to be replaced by Hu Chunhua, the fast-rising party chief of Inner Mongolia.

The changes in China’s provincial leadership follow the unveiling in November of the Politburo’s Standing Committee, China’s highest decision-making body. Mr Wang, 57, was overlooked for promotion to the standing committee but is still expected to be appointed to a senior post in the central government.

He oversaw a tumultuous period of economic change and labour activism in the populous southern Chinese province, adjacent to Hong Kong, where he took over as party secretary in 2007. He responded to a wave of wild-cat strikes in Guangdong in the summer of 2010 by pushing for negotiations with the young workers rather than a crackdown, as had been the pattern in the past.