At first glance it looks easy to tell who is in charge at China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile phone operator by subscribers – industry veteran Wang Jianzhou is chairman of both the Hong Kong-listed company and its majority stakeholding parent.

In reality, however, things are not so simple. In a terse notice last week the listed company revealed that Mr Wang had been replaced as secretary of the Communist party committee at the state-owned parent company by Xi Guohua, former vice-minister for information technology.

As party secretary, Mr Xi – who was also named vice-chairman of the parent company and can expect the same role at the listed company after a discreet interval – now outranks his putative boss when it comes to such crucial issues as senior management appointments.