43-Year-Old Ph.D. Tsinghua Became The Youngest Provincial And Ministerial Leader In China

On April 8, the eighteenth meeting of the Standing Committee of the Eleventh People ’s Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region adopted the appointment list and decided to appoint Ren Wei as the vice chairman of the people ’s government of the autonomous region. The 43-year-old Ren Wei became the youngest provincial and ministerial official in China. Before he set this record, he was also a young cadre from the power industry-Yang Jinbai, who had served as deputy general manager of two major power grid companies in China, was the vice chairman of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region when he was 45 years old.
Ren Wei was born in May 1976 in Qishan, Shaanxi. He entered Tsinghua University in 1993. After graduating from Tsinghua University with a PhD in thermal power in 2003, Ren Wei joined China Guodian, one of the domestic power generation central enterprises, and worked as a senior project manager in the commissioning department at Beijing Guodian Longyuan Environmental Engineering Co., Ltd., which belongs to the group. Four years later, he joined Guodian Technology and Environmental Protection Group Co., Ltd., the parent company of Beijing Guodian Longyuan Environmental Engineering, where he served as senior business manager of the Planning Development Department and deputy manager of the Planning Development Department (chairing the work). In November 2009, he served as Secretary of the Youth League Committee and Deputy Director of the Political Work Department of China Guodian Corporation.
From May 2016 to August 2018, Ren Wei went to the Guodian Group Tibet Branch to hold a key position until he was transferred to another large power generation central enterprise, China Datang Group Co., Ltd., as deputy general manager and member of the party group. In March this year, he became the vice chairman of the People’s Government of the Tibet Autonomous Region, until this time he was appointed to officially return to work in Tibet.
On April 1, Datang Group announced that it had recently received a notice of appointment and removal from the Central Organization Department, and that Comrade Ren Wei no longer served as a member of the Party Leadership Group and deputy general manager of China Datang Group Co., Ltd. On the afternoon of March 31, the group company held an expanded meeting of the leadership team and announced the decision of the Central Organization Department on the appointment and removal of Comrade Ren Wei.
In November 2018, Yang Jinbai, who was promoted from deputy general manager of State Grid Corporation Limited and member of the party group to vice chairman of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, once set a record for the youngest provincial and ministerial officials in China. Yang Jinbai is a 1989 graduate of Xi’an Jiaotong University, graduated from the school’s power system and automation major. Yang Jinbo was born in April 1973. After joining the work in 1994, he worked for a long time in power grid central enterprises. He served as deputy general manager of China Southern Power Grid and State Grid, two major power grid companies in China.
Energy is an important basic industry for national economic and social development, and it is not uncommon for local officials to come out of energy central enterprises. For example, in February last year, Wu Xiuzhang, the former deputy general manager of Datang Group and a member of the party group, left the energy industry for more than 30 years and was transferred to Ningxia as vice chairman of the autonomous region ’s government. Qin Weizhong, vice governor of Guangdong Province, worked in two major petroleum and petrochemical central enterprises for more than 20 years before entering the official career in 2019. In May 2019, Ling Wen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, served as vice governor of Shandong Province. Ling Wen worked for Shenhua Systems, the world’s largest coal supplier, for 18 years.
There are also many cases of reverse flow or two-way flow. In January this year, Mao Weiming, the former standing member of the Jiangxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China and the former deputy governor of the Jiangxi Provincial People’s Government, and the alternate member of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, served as the leader. Mao Weiming, who has rich experience in local party and government work and is familiar with enterprise management, regional planning, and economic work, is the first chairman of the State Grid of non-power industry origin. In mid-January, Zhang Yuzhuo, member of the Standing Committee of the Tianjin Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of the Binhai New Area District Committee, and the 19th Central Alternate Member of the Tianjin Municipal Committee, who completed his career as a coal central enterprise in Tianjin in 2017, returned to the energy industry and became the first non-oil Chairman of the oil-based state-owned enterprise with a systematic background.