Guo Shuyan (; October 1935 – 23 January 2022) was a Chinese engineer and politician. He served as Governor of

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

Province from 1990 to 1993. He also served as the deputy director of the State Science and Technology Commission from 1985 to 1990 and deputy director of the

Three Gorges Project The Three Gorges Dam is a hydroelectricity, hydroelectric gravity dam that spans the Yangtze River by the town of Sandouping, in Yiling District, Yichang, Hubei province, central China, downstream of the Three Gorges. The Three Gorges Dam has ...

Construction Committee from 1993 to 2003.

Early life and education

Guo Shuyan was born in October 1935 in

Zhenping County, Henan Zhenping County () is a county in the southwest of Henan province, China. It is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Nanyang, Henan, Nanyang. Introduction Zhenping was known in ancient times as Nieyang. It has a long history ...

, Republic of China. He attended

Nankai University Nankai University (NKU or Nankai; ) is a national public research university located in Tianjin, China. It is a prestigious Chinese state Class A Double First Class University approved by the central government of China, and a member of the fo ...

in 1952, before going to the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

to study at the

Ural Polytechnic Institute Ural State Technical University (USTU) is a public technical university in Yekaterinburg, Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russian Federation. It is the biggest technical institution of higher education in Russia, with close ties to local industry in the Urals. ...

, where he earned a degree in

metallurgy Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their inter-metallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are known as alloys. Metallurgy encompasses both the sc ...

in 1959. He joined the

Communist Party of China The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

in 1957.

Career

In 1959, in the midst of the

Great Leap Forward The Great Leap Forward (Second Five Year Plan) of the People's Republic of China (PRC) was an economic and social campaign led by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 1958 to 1962. CCP Chairman Mao Zedong launched the campaign to reconstruc ...

, Guo returned to China and worked at the Shenyang Manufacturing Research Institute of the First Ministry of Machine Building. He would work at the institute for nearly two decades, later rising to deputy director. From 1978 to 1982, Guo served as deputy director and Chief Engineer of the

Institute of High Energy Physics The Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IHEP) () is the largest and most comprehensive fundamental research center of high-energy physics in China. It is located in Shijingshan District, Beijing and administered ...

of the

Chinese Academy of Sciences The Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); ), known by Academia Sinica in English until the 1980s, is the national academy of the People's Republic of China for natural sciences. It has historical origins in the Academia Sinica during the Republ ...

. He served as deputy director of the Bureau of Development Estimates of the State Science and Technology Commission from 1982 to 1983, and deputy director of the Science and Technology Leading Group of the

State Council State Council may refer to: Government * State Council of the Republic of Korea, the national cabinet of South Korea, headed by the President * State Council of the People's Republic of China, the national cabinet and chief administrative auth ...

from 1983 to 1984. From 1985 to 1990, Guo served as deputy director of the State Science and Technology Commission. In this capacity, he was instrumental in introducing the Chinese-developed anti-malarial drug

artemisinin Artemisinin () and its semisynthetic derivatives are a group of drugs used in the treatment of malaria due to ''Plasmodium falciparum''. It was discovered in 1972 by Tu Youyou, who shared the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her dis ...

to Africa. In 1990, Guo was appointed Governor and Deputy Party Secretary of

Province. His predecessor,

Guo Zhenqian Guo Zhenqian (; February 1933 – 13 August 2019) was a Chinese politician and banker. He served as Governor of Hubei Province from 1985 to 1990, Vice Governor of the People's Bank of China from 1990 to 1993, and Auditor-General of the National ...

(no relation), had disagreed with

Guan Guangfu Guan Guangfu (; December 1931 – 16 April 2016) was a Chinese politician of Manchu ethnicity. He served as Communist Party Secretary of Hubei province from 1983 to 1994. Biography Guan was born in December 1931 in Muling, Heilongjiang Province ...

, the Party Secretary of Hubei, over the ambitious "Rising Abruptly" strategy, which aimed to dramatically increase the province's economic output. However, Guo Shuyan also proved incompatible with Guan, and similarly ended his term prematurely. From 1993 to 2003, Guo Shuyan served as deputy director of the

Construction Committee. He also concurrently served as deputy director of the State Planning Commission from 1993 to 1998. From 2003 to 2008, he served as Vice Chairman of the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee of the

10th National People's Congress The 10th National People's Congress () was in session from 2003 to 2008. It held five plenary sessions in this period. There were 2,984 deputies to this Congress. It succeeded the 9th National People's Congress. The 1st Session The Congres ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guo, Shuyan 1935 births 2022 deaths Governors of Hubei People's Republic of China politicians from Henan Politicians from Nanyang, Henan Engineers from Henan Chinese metallurgists Nankai University alumni Chinese expatriates in the Soviet Union Delegates to the 10th National People's Congress