China has appointed a new Party secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, according to an official statement issued on the ministry's website on Tuesday.

At a meeting on Tuesday afternoon, a representative of the Organization Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee announced the decision to name Zhang Zhu as Party secretary of the ministry, replacing Han Jun.

Zhang, born in February 1968, is a native of Tongxin county in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region. Prior to the appointment, he served as deputy Party secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region and Party secretary of its capital, Urumqi, according to public information.