China’s oil giant looks to iron man in return to communist roots
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By Bloomberg
China National Petroleum Corp., the country’s biggest oil and gas producer, is seeking to rebuild its reputation by asking executives to focus on being good members of the Communist Party -- and to emulate Iron Man.
Not the comic book version, but a hero from the company’s history who braved brutal winters to keep oil drilling going.
The company’s new chairman, Wang Yilin, was put in charge of state-owned CNPC in May amid rafts of allegations that felled more than a dozen top executives at the parent of Hong Kong- listed PetroChina Co. The new leader said rebuilding its reputation is his “do-or-die” issue, according to a statement on its website Friday after its twice-yearly working conference near Beijing.
The company will now strictly follow the party’s promotion rules, elevating those who are both excellent party members and good business executives, Wang said. He added that CNPC has already introduced tighter supervision of executives and made promotions more transparent.
“We have to emphasize the communist party’s leadership in the company and make sure all party members fulfill their duties as a party member first,” Wang said in the statement. “The root reason for all the corruption was the lack of execution of party rules and regulations.”
CNPC and PetroChina were hit hardest by President Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption campaign. Since 2013, executives dismissed include former chairman Jiang Jiemin and former general manager Liao Yongyuan.
Instead of using those executives as leadership examples, the CNPC chairman suggested another from the 1960s. His name was Wang Jinxi, otherwise known as “Iron Man” in the company’s history.
Iron Man Wang (no relation to the current chairman) was leader of a CNPC drilling team in northeast China’s Daqing oilfield, who endured minus-30 degree Celsius (minus-22 Fahrenheit) temperatures in winter to keep drilling projects going, according to the company’s website.
Chairman Wang referred to him as the “heart and soul” of China’s oil workers and said all employees should bring such a fighting spirit to their daily work.