China Mobile officially announced that Wang Jianzhou will retire from the position of chairman of China Mobile and be replaced by Xi Guohua, effective immediately.

This marks the completion of a two-year transition to a new leadership in this Chinese telecom company. The leadership transition began in May 2010 when Wang stepped aside as chief executive of China Mobile and was replaced by Li Yue.

The board of directors of China Mobile said that it received a notice from its holding company on March 22, 2012, stating that Wang will retire and vice chairman Xi will take over his position. Therefore, Wang will not seek a re-election at the upcoming annual general meeting of China Mobile.

Wang, 63, became chairman of China Mobile in 2004. He led the company on its first overseas acquisition of buying a majority stake in Paktel, a telecommunications enterprise in Pakistan.

Xi, 60, has an engineering background and previously was formerly vice minister of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. He was appointed vice chairman of China Mobile in July 2010.