Huang Qifan (, born May 1952) is a Chinese politician, best known for his term as the Mayor of

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...

, one of China's four directly-controlled municipalities, between 2010 and 2016. Huang began his political career in Shanghai and was transferred to Chongqing in 2001 as its Deputy Mayor, before being promoted to Mayor in 2010.

Career

Huang was born in

Zhuji Zhuji () is a county-level city under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Shaoxing, in north-central Zhejiang province, China, located about south of Hangzhou. It has with a population of 1,218,072 inhabitants at the 2020 census e ...

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

province. During the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goal ...

he worked in a

coking Coking is the heating of coal in the absence of oxygen to a temperature above 600 °C to drive off the volatile components of the raw coal, leaving a hard, strong, porous material of high carbon content called coke. Coke consists almost ent ...

factory. He joined the

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

in 1976. His political career began in Shanghai's

Pudong Pudong is a district of Shanghai located east of the Huangpu, the river which flows through central Shanghai. The name ''Pudong'' was originally applied to the Huangpu's east bank, directly across from the west bank or Puxi, the historic city ...

New Area in 1993. Between 1994 and 1995 Huang served as the Director of the Policy Research Office of the Communist Party organization in Shanghai. Between 1995 and 2001 Huang served as the Deputy Secretary-General of the Shanghai Municipal Government. Between 1998 and 1999 Huang took on a one-year stint pursuing his

Executive MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

at the

China Europe International Business School China Europe International Business School (CEIBS; ) is a business school located in Shanghai, China. Established under an agreement between the Chinese government and the European Commission in Shanghai in November 1994, CEIBS was the first bus ...

(CEIBS) in Shanghai. Huang was transferred to work in Chongqing in 2001, several years after the city was elevated to "Direct-controlled Municipality" status equivalent to that of Shanghai. He was the city's Deputy Mayor from 2001 to 2009 and sat on the Communist Party's Chongqing Standing Committee. Huang is unique in that he has served under four Chongqing Party Secretaries

He Guoqiang He Guoqiang (; born October 1. 1943) is a retired senior leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Between 2007 and 2012, He was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), China's highest ruling council, and the Secretary of the Cent ...

Wang Yang Wang Yang may refer to: People *Wang Yang (politician) (born 1955), Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference *Wang Yang (Liaoning politician) (born 1957), former provincial official from Liaoni ...

Bo Xilai Bo Xilai (; born 3 July 1949) is a Chinese former politician who was convicted on bribery and embezzlement charges. He came to prominence through his tenures as Mayor of Dalian and then the governor of Liaoning. From 2004 to November 2007, ...

, and

Zhang Dejiang Zhang Dejiang (; born 4 November 1946) is a Chinese retired politician. He served as the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress, roughly the equivalent of a speaker of parliament in other countries between ...

, each with their unique set of policies and political beliefs, and all of whom went on to become prominent politicians at the national level. Huang is therefore considered a "political survivor", and has been dubbed the ''sichao yuanlao'' (; roughly, "he who served four emperors."). Huang was considered a key political ally of Bo Xilai, who abruptly fell out of favour with the national leadership following the

Wang Lijun incident The Wang Lijun incident was a major Chinese political scandal which began in February 2012 when Wang Lijun, vice-mayor of Chongqing, was abruptly demoted, after revealing to the United States consulate details of British businessman Neil Heywoo ...

in February 2012. Many believe that Huang's political career had come to an end due to his association with Bo and the appointment of

as party secretary for Chongqing following Bo's dismissal in March 2012. During a televised government meeting, Huang expressed his support for Zhang. He was elected to the

18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party The 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was elected by the 18th National Congress on 15 November 2012, and sat in plenary sessions until the communing of the 19th National Congress in 2017. It was formally proceeded by the 17t ...

in 2012, and re-elected Mayor of Chongqing in January 2013. Huang left his post as mayor of Chongqing City on 29 December 2016; he then became Vice-Chair of the

National People's Congress Financial and Economic Affairs Committee The National People's Congress Financial and Economic Affairs Committee () is one of nine special committees of the National People's Congress, the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. The special committee was created during ...

. He is also an adviser to the

China Finance 40 Forum The China Finance 40 Forum or CF40 is a Chinese think tank created in 2008 which specializes on issues of economic and financial policy. In January 2021, the University of Pennsylvania's Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program ranked CF40 as #8 to ...

(CF40). Huang has stated his opposition to the

Hukou system ''Hukou'' () is a system of household registration Civil registration is the system by which a government records the vital events ( births, marriages, and deaths) of its citizens and residents. The resulting repository or database h ...

, which he believes is unnecessarily reducing the competitiveness of older Chinese workers.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huang, Qifan Mayors of Chongqing Living people 1952 births People's Republic of China politicians from Zhejiang Politicians from Shaoxing People from Zhuji