BEIJING (Reuters) - China formally appointed its two new top diplomats and defence minister on Saturday, positions which had already been flagged in advance as part of the new government of President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang. Outgoing foreign minister Yang Jiechi, ambassador to Washington from 2001-2005 and a polished English speaker, was promoted to state councillor with responsibility for foreign policy. China has only five such councillors and the post is senior to that of foreign minister.

China's parliament on Saturday announced Wang Yi, a former ambassador to Japan and currently in charge of Taiwan affairs, had been nominated as the country's new foreign minister. Wang replaces Yang Jiechi, who has served since 2007. Yang was nominated to the State Council, according to an announcement by the National People's Congress, China's rubberstamp parliament. The changes are part of a broad revamp of personnel as China concludes a once-a-decade leadership transition that saw Communist party chief Xi Jinping elected the president on Thursday.

Blind Chinese lawyer and activist Chen Guangcheng hopes to visit Taiwan in June, a rights group said Friday, as the island's government said a visit could help facilitate understanding with China. Chen and his family plans to arrive in Taipei on June 23 for a 20-day visit, according to the Taipei-based Taiwan Association for Human Rights, which has organised the trip. "Primarily Chen will meet with people from the Taipei lawyers' association and advocates who have dedicated themselves to the island's judicial reforms," Yang Sen-hong, the head of the rights group, told AFP.

Li Keqiang is set to be named premier of China at the nation's annual parliamentary gathering on Friday in one of the final steps of a carefully planned once-a-decade power handover. As head of government Li will oversee a sprawling portfolio of domestic and economic affairs, although real decision-making takes place in the top committee of the Communist Party, on which he also sits.