(Yicai Global) Feb. 23 -- The All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the national trade union center, has appointed the chairman of carmaker FAW Group as its next secretary of the party committee, Worker's Daily reported today.

FAW, one of the biggest domestic car vendors, has not yet announced a successor to Xu Liuping. The ACFTU is the world's largest labor union that manages over 2.8 million lower-tier unions with almost 300 million members to build fair labor conditions.

Born in 1964, Xu spent nearly six years as FAW's chairman to advance the upgrading of its domestic luxury car marque Hongqi. Sales of such vehicles surged to 310,000 units last year from just 4,700 cars in 2017. Before joining FAW, Xu worked for China South Industries Group for a long time. He was the chairman of the group's unit China Changan Automobile Group.

Changchun-based FAW makes sedans, commercial vehicles, and heavy-load trucks. It has joint ventures with Germany's Volkswagen and Japan's Toyota Motor. Last year, FAW earned more than CNY49 billion (USD7.1 billion) in gross profit with CNY630 billion (USD91.4 billion) in revenue, selling as many as 320 million cars.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi