Lan Fo'an (; born June 1962) is a Chinese politician who is currently serving as minister and party branch secretary of Finance. He previously served as the

Party Secretary of Shanxi The secretary of the Liaoning Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party is the Party leader, leader of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). As th ...

Early life

Lan was born in

Huidong County, Guangdong Huidong County () is a county of southeastern Guangdong province, People's Republic of China, with some South China Sea coast in the south of the county. It is under the administration of Huizhou City. Administrative divisions The county is res ...

, in June 1962. After graduating from Hubei College of Finance and Economics (now

Zhongnan University of Economics and Law The Zhongnan University of Economics and Law (ZUEL; ; ) is a public university located in Wuhan, Hubei, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education, and co-funded by Ministry of Education, Ministry of Finance, and Hubei Provincial Pe ...

) in 1985, he was dispatched to the Ministry of Finance.

Political career

Beginning in November 1988, he served in several posts in the Guangdong Provincial Finance Department, including section member, principal staff member, and director. In March 1999, he was appointed vice mayor of

Dongguan Dongguan,; pinyin: alternately romanized via Cantonese as Tungkun, is a prefecture-level city in central Guangdong Province, China. An important industrial city in the Pearl River Delta, Dongguan borders the provincial capital of Guangzhou t ...

, a city in Guangdong, but held the position for only two-and-a-half years. He then moved back to the Guangdong Provincial Finance Department and was appointed its deputy head. In April 2007, he was promoted to party branch secretary of Guangdong Provincial Audit Department, concurrently holding the head position since March 2008. In March 2015, he was appointed as party secretary of

Shaoguan Shaoguan is a prefecture-level city in northern Guangdong Province ( Yuebei), South China, bordering Hunan to the northwest and Jiangxi to the northeast. It is home to the mummified remains of the sixth Zen Buddhist patriarch Huineng. Its built-u ...

, another Guangdong city, making him the top political leader there. He was promoted to vice governor of Guangdong in January 2016. In March 2017, he was transferred to the neighboring

Hainan Hainan is an island provinces of China, province and the southernmost province of China. It consists of the eponymous Hainan Island and various smaller islands in the South China Sea under the province's administration. The name literally mean ...

province, and he was appointed secretary of its Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Party's agency in charge of anti-corruption efforts. He also served as director of the Hainan Provincial Supervisory Commission. He became a member of the Standing Committee of the CCP Hainan Provincial Committee. He served as a delegate to the 19th CCP National Congress in October 2017. From 2017 to 2022, he was a member of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. He was also a member of the

13th National People's Congress The 13th National People's Congress (NPC) was elected from October 2017 to February 2018 and was in session in the five-year period from 2018 to 2023. It held five sessions in this period, occurring around early March every year until before 202 ...

from 2018 to 2023. In April 2021, he was transferred to

north China North China () is a list of regions of China, geographical region of the People's Republic of China, consisting of five province-level divisions of China, provincial-level administrative divisions, namely the direct-administered municipalities ...

Shanxi Shanxi; Chinese postal romanization, formerly romanised as Shansi is a Provinces of China, province in North China. Its capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-level cities are Changzhi a ...

province and appointed deputy party secretary. On June 4, he was named acting

governor of Shanxi The governor of Shanxi, officially the Governor of the Shanxi Provincial People's Government, is the head of Shanxi, Shanxi Province and leader of the Shanxi Provincial People's Government. The governor is elected by the Shanxi Provincial People' ...

, replacing

Lin Wu Lin Wu (; born February 1962) is a Chinese politician and the current Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary of Shandong province. Previously, he served as CCP Committee Secretary of Shanxi province, Shanxi Governor, deputy governor and t ...

. In October 2022, he was elected as a member of the

CCP Central Committee The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, officially the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is the highest organ when the national congress is not in session and is tasked with carrying out congress resolutions, d ...

at the 20th CCP National Congress. In December 2022, he was appointed secretary of the CCP Committee of

province. He stepped down from the post on 28 September 2023. On 28 September 2023, he was appointed as the CCP committee secretary of the Ministry of Finance.

As Finance Minister

On 24 October 2023, he was appointed as the Minister of Finance. In October 2024, Lan announced that the Chinese government would issue 325 billion USD in special bonds to boost China's economy amidst a sharp property market downturn. In November 8, 2024, China approved a 6 trillion yuan (839 billion USD) plan to assist local governments in refinancing their substantial debt. Lan revealed that local governments' hidden debt was 14.3 trillion yuan (2 trillion USD) by the end of 2023. He noted that 2 trillion yuan will be allocated yearly from 2024 to 2026, with the aim of reducing hidden debt to 2.3 trillion yuan (320.9 billion USD) by 2028. The limit for issuing special bonds will increase to 35.52 trillion yuan (4.96 billion USD). Lan described this measure as a significant change in China’s debt restructuring and assured that the government debt risk is manageable.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lan, Fo'an 1962 births Living people People from Huidong County, Guangdong Zhongnan University of Economics and Law alumni South China University of Technology alumni Delegates to the 19th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party Delegates to the 13th National People's Congress Members of the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party People's Republic of China politicians from Guangdong Chinese Communist Party politicians from Guangdong Governors of Shanxi