Sun Zhigang (; born 30 May 1954) is a Chinese politician who was the former

Communist Party Secretary A Party Committee Secretary () is the leader of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) organization in a province, city, village, or other administrative unit. In most cases, it is the ''de facto'' highest political office of its area of jurisdictio ...

Guizhou Guizhou (; formerly Kweichow) is a landlocked province in the southwest region of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Guiyang, in the center of the province. Guizhou borders the autonomous region of Guangxi to the ...

. He was formerly mayor of

Yichang Yichang (), alternatively romanized as Ichang, is a prefecture-level city located in western Hubei province, China. It is the third largest city in the province after the capital, Wuhan and the prefecture-level city Xiangyang, by urban populati ...

, the secretary-general of the Hubei party committee under Yu Zhengsheng, the Vice-Governor of

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

province, and chief of the national office for health care reform.

Early life and career in academia

Sun Zhigang was born in May 1954 in

Xingyang Xingyang (), is a county-level city of Henan Province, South Central China, it is under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Zhengzhou. It is situated 15 kilometers to the west of Zhengzhou city proper. The population of Xingyang i ...

Henan Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...

province. He joined the work force in February 1971 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 goa ...

as a

sent-down youth The sent-down, rusticated, or "educated" youth (), also known as the ''zhiqing'', were the young people who—beginning in the 1950s until the end of the Cultural Revolution, willingly or under coercion—left the urban districts of the ...

in Xingyang. In 1973, he entered Wuhan Institute of Metallurgy (now incorporated into

Wuhan University of Science and Technology The Wuhan University of Science and Technology (WUST) is a public, comprehensive, research university located in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, China. It is a key university established and managed by Hubei province and by the Chinese ...

) as a "

Worker-Peasant-Soldier student Worker-Peasant-Soldier students () were Chinese students who entered colleges between 1970 and 1976, during the later part of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). They were accepted not for their academic qualifications, but rather for their wo ...

". 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 September 1976. After graduating from college, Sun stayed at his alma mater as an instructor. He entered the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics to pursue graduate studies in economics, then he became, for a brief period, a research fellow at

Zhongnan University of Economics and Law The Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (ZUEL; ) is a public university in Wuhan, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. ZUEL was established in 2000 with the merge of Central South University of Finance and Economics ...

. In April 1985, he quit academia to pursue a career in politics, entering the Wuhan municipal government.

Political career

Wuhan Wuhan (, ; ; ) is the capital of Hubei Province in the People's Republic of China. It is the largest city in Hubei and the most populous city in Central China, with a population of over eleven million, the ninth-most populous Chinese city an ...

, the provincial capital, Sun became the deputy head of the city's economics commission, and also in charge of economic restructuring. He became the district deputy party chief, then governor of

Hanyang District Hanyang District () forms part of the urban core of and is one of 13 urban districts of the prefecture-level city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province, China. Currently, it is a district and stands between the Han River (right/southern bank) ...

. In March 1993 he was named vice mayor of Wuhan, then transferred to serve as the mayor of

in August 1996, and promoted to party chief in March 1999. He became a member of the

provincial Party Standing Committee Members of the standing committees of the Chinese Communist Party provincial-level committees, commonly referred to as ''Shengwei Changwei'' (), make up the top ranks of the provincial-level organizations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). I ...

in June 2002, and the secretary-general of the Party Committee, becoming chief of staff under then-party chief Yu Zhengsheng. Beginning in September 2006, Sun began serving as executive vice governor of Anhui province, and a member of the party ruling council there. After a comprehensive set of health care reforms were put into effect by the central government, Sun spearheaded implementation of the reforms in Anhui province, pioneering a government drug purchase program which was circulated at the national level and dubbed the "Anhui model." He was then tasked with implementing the Anhui model nationwide, taking on the role of deputy director of the

National Development and Reform Commission The National Development and Reform Commission of the People's Republic of China (NDRC), formerly State Planning Commission and State Development Planning Commission, is a macroeconomic management agency under the State Council, which has b ...

in March 2010, and then in December 2010, the chief of the Office of Health Care Reform. In a government reshuffle in March 2013, Sun was named deputy director of the

National Health and Family Planning Commission The National Health and Family Planning Commission of the People's Republic of China (NHFPC) was a cabinet-level executive department under the State Council which is responsible for providing information, raising health awareness and education, ...

. On 16 October 2015, Sun was appointed acting governor of

province, succeeding Chen Min'er, who had been promoted to provincial party chief. Sun's governorship was duly confirmed by the provincial People's Congress on 30 January 2016. In July 2017, Sun was appointed as the Communist Party Secretary of Guizhou.孙政才不再兼任重庆市委书记陈敏尔担任
/ref> In December 2020, Sun was appointed as the Deputy Chairperson of the National People's Congress Financial and Economic Affairs Committee.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sun, Zhigang 1954 births Living people Chinese Communist Party politicians from Henan People's Republic of China politicians from Henan Governors of Guizhou Political office-holders in Anhui Political office-holders in Hubei Mayors of places in China Shanghai University of Finance and Economics alumni Zhongnan University of Economics and Law alumni Politicians from Zhengzhou Wuhan University of Science and Technology alumni Members of the 19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Delegates to the 12th National People's Congress Members of the 12th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference