(Yicai) Oct. 29 -- China Mobile, one of the country's three big mobile network operators, has appointed the former chairman of its peer China Unicom as its new chairman.

Chairman Yang Jie has stepped down and will be succeeded by Chen Zhongyue, China Mobile announced at a management meeting yesterday. Chen has been chairman of China Unicom since December 2023.

Senior management reshuffles among the three big mobile network operators are not uncommon, with Yang becoming chairman of China Telecom in 2016 before taking the role at China Mobile in 2019.

China Mobile did not disclose the reason for Yang's departure or his next move, while China Unicom has not announced a new chairman candidate yet.

China Mobile's business is far larger than that of the other two firms, with its net profit reaching CNY115.4 billion (USD15.8 billion) in the nine months ended Sept. 30, which was 3.7 times that of China Telecom and 13.1 times that of China Unicom. Its operating revenue topped CNY794.7 billion (USD108.9 billion).

Editors: Tang Shihua, Martin Kadiev