Wang Zuoan has been promoted as Deputy Director of the CCP CC's powerful United Front Work Department (UFWD) as it takes control of all religious. Wang Zuoan will continue to hold his earlier designation of Director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs (SARA) for purposes of convenience in dealing with foreigners.Wang Zuoan's reputation as SARA Director among mainland Catholics was that he was tough on religious practices. In 2017, when new rules on religion were announced, Wang Zuoan said in the official People's Daily that the rules were needed because "the foreign use of religion to infiltrate [China] intensifies by the day and religious extremist thought is spreading in some areas. Issues with religion on the internet are starting to break out ... and illegal religious gatherings in some places continue despite bans." An underground Catholic priest was quoted by ucanews.com as saying that Wang Zuoan is tougher than his predecessor Ye Xiaowen, whom he replaced almost nine years ago. He added “Tibetan Buddhists, Xinjiang Muslims and Christians are still constantly suppressed and crosses taken down. Also, Wang is obedient and will faithfully follow the central government and President Xi Jinping's policies. This has resulted in his rise in the hierachy. These kinds of officials have trampled on our freedom of belief and climbed into high positions, faithfully implementing increasingly tight religious policies.” 

(Comment: Wang Zuoan is 59 years old and has a university degree. He started working in September 1977 at Yixing City Arts and Crafts Ceramics Factory in Jiangsu province and in July 1983, joined the research department of the Central United Front Work Department. Since then, he has been promoted regularly. He started working at SARA soon afterwards, including a stint at the religious culture press office before rising roles as editor-in-chief, divisional president and in 1998 deputy director and finally director in 2009.He was trained in the philosophy department of Nanjing University which was then dominated by Hu Fuming (who coined the slogan "practice is the only criterion of truth") and later Guo Luoji.  This was a  department which was looking into new ways to interpret Marxism, and was in the 1980s, at the forefront over debates on humanism and Marxism.   Wang Zuo'an was once with the United Front Department before he was transferred to SARA, eventually becoming director (in 2009) and becoming one of the longest standing directors. He was made an alternative member of the CCP Standing Committee last year, which enhances his political position.  Wang Zuo'an is an intellectual and a theorist, primarily.  His major book is 《中国的宗教问题和宗教政策》Beijing, 2010.  It is easily the most thorough study of religion and religious policy written by a SARA director (442 pages). It is dated, but it gives good insight into Wang's thinking, the depth of his knowledge and his analytical framework.   He does not often speak out, unlike some of his predecessors, but this is probably a good thing. Chinese academics and religious leaders (at least Buddhists and Protestants) find him accessible. His promotion and reappointment are good, IMHO, given the socio-political framework that exists.)