Wu Yingjie has been appointed as Party chief of the Tibet autonomous region by the Communist Party of China Central Committee, Xinhua News Agency reported.

The official, previously the deputy Party chief, is the first person to hold the position after spending his entire political career in the region.

Born in the eastern province of Shandong, Wu, 59, has worked in Tibet since 1974. He spent several years on livestock farms and at a power plant before gaining a bachelor's degree in Lhasa between 1979 and 1983.

He joined the regional government's education department in 1983 and gradually rose up the ranks to become head of the department between 2000 and 2003.

Wu went on to be vice-chairman of the region from 2003 to 2013, a member of the standing committee of the Tibet committee of the CPC from 2005 to 2011, and had been deputy Party chief since 2011. He holds a master's degree in Party history from the Party School of the CPC Central Committee.

Chen Quanguo, Wu's predecessor, is no longer a member of the Tibet committee of the CPC and will receive a new appointment, Xinhua reported.

Meanwhile, the committee also named Du Jiahao as the new Party chief of Hunan province and Chen Hao as the new Party chief of Yunnan province.

Du, 61, has been the deputy Party chief and governor of Hunan since 2013. He succeeds Xu Shouheng.

Chen, who replaces Li Jiheng, was vice-president of the All-China Federation of Labor from 2011 to 2014 and had been the deputy Party chief and the governor of Yunnan since 2014.