Gao Hucheng (; born August 1951) is a retired Chinese politician and business executive. Between 2013 and 2017, he served as the

Commerce Minister A Commerce minister (sometimes business minister, industry minister, trade minister or international trade minister) is a position in many governments that is responsible for regulating external trade and promoting economic growth (commercial polic ...

of the People's Republic of China. Previously, he was Vice Minister of Commerce and Vice Chairman of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. Gao holds a doctoral degree in

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation an ...

from the University of Paris VII and is fluent in French.

Career

Education and industry

Gao Hucheng was born in Shuo County (now

Shuozhou Shuozhou is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi province, China, bordering Inner Mongolia to the northwest. It is situated along the upper reaches of the Fen River. The prefecture as a whole has an area of about and, in 2010, a pop ...

city),

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-leve ...

province in 1951. At age 17 he was sent to work at a village in

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and ...

province, and later at a cement factory in

Datong Datong is a prefecture-level city in northern Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It is located in the Datong Basin at an elevation of and borders Inner Mongolia to the north and west and Hebei to the east. As of the 2020 ce ...

, Shanxi. In 1972 Gao was chosen to study French at the Beijing Second Foreign Languages Institute, and in 1975 he went abroad to study at the

National University of Zaire The National University of Zaire (french: Université nationale du Zaïre, or UNAZA) was a federated university in Zaire (the present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo). It was formed in August 1971 when the country's three existing universiti ...

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one of ...

, capital of

Zaire Zaire (, ), officially the Republic of Zaire (french: République du Zaïre, link=no, ), was a Congolese state from 1971 to 1997 in Central Africa that was previously and is now again known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Zaire was, ...

(now known as

Democratic Republic of Congo The Democratic Republic of the Congo (french: République démocratique du Congo (RDC), colloquially "La RDC" ), informally Congo-Kinshasa, DR Congo, the DRC, the DROC, or the Congo, and formerly and also colloquially Zaire, is a country in ...

). From 1977 to 1980 Gao worked for the Chinese embassy in Zaire as a commercial officer. In 1980 Gao Hucheng joined China National Machinery and Equipment Import and Export Corporation (CNMEIEC), and two years later was appointed deputy general manager of the company's France office in Paris. He spent the next five years in France, during which time he enrolled at the University of Paris VII, earning a doctorate in

in 1985. In 1987, Gao joined the

Chinese Communist Party 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 Ci ...

. From 1989 to 1990 he was the chief of the financial department of CNMEIEC, and was from 1992 to 1994 the deputy general manager of China National Resources Corporation.

Government

In 1994 Gao was appointed head of the Planning and Finance Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC), a predecessor of the Ministry of Commerce, and promoted to assistant minister in 1997, a job he held for the next five years. In 2002 Gao was transferred from the central government to Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, where he served as Vice Chairman (governor). Only a year later, he returned to the reorganized MOFTEC, now called Ministry of Commerce, as Vice Minister. He stayed in the position for 10 years, and concurrently served as China's International Trade Negotiation Representative from 2010 to 2013. At the 12th National People's Congress of March 2013, Gao was appointed Minister of Commerce in the cabinet of Premier

Li Keqiang Li Keqiang (born 1 July 1955) is a Chinese politician who is the outgoing premier of China. An economist by profession, Li is head of China's executive branch as well as one of the leading figures behind China's Financial and Economic Affa ...

, replacing the outgoing minister

Chen Deming Chen Deming (; born 1949) is a former the President of Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits of the People's Republic of China. Early life Chen was born in Shanghai in 1949. He went on to receive a Bachelor's Degree in Economics ...

. Gao left his post as Minister of Commerce in 2017. Gao was a full member of 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 ...

J.P Morgan controversy

In 2015, the Wall Street Journal released an article which examined Gao Hucheng's interaction with

J.P. Morgan JP may refer to: Arts and media * ''JP'' (album), 2001, by American singer Jesse Powell * ''Jp'' (magazine), an American Jeep magazine * ''Jönköpings-Posten'', a Swedish newspaper * Judas Priest, an English heavy metal band * ''Jurassic Par ...

in regards to employment of his son, Gao Jue (also known as Joe Gao). In a December 2006 email exchange, a recruiter at the bank says "I am more concerned that Jue did very poorly in interviews - some MDs said he was the worst BA candidate they had ever see - and we obviously had to extend him an offer." In June of 2008, Gao Hucheng had dinner with Fang Fang, a managing director at the bank, and requested that Fang find a new position for Gao Jue, as Gao Jue's job had been cut. According to Fang in an email, "During this one-on-one dinner with me, the father spent long time explaining to me why it is important for the son to find another position with JPM before July 13 because he is desperate to maintain his hard-won H1-B visa which is under JPM sponsorship and won't become valid until Oct 1, while his current employment contract will end by July 13. ..The father indicated to me repeatedly that he is willing to go extra miles to help JPM in whatever way we think he can." Gao Jue was given a new position within the bank after the dinner, and shortly afterwards, he sent a sexually explicit email to a human resources employee at the bank. His manager in his new role, Anil Bhalla, said "there is general consensus among the seniors in our group as well reports from people in his previous group that he is immature, irresponsible and unreliable."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gao, Hucheng Ministers of Commerce of the People's Republic of China Political office-holders in Guangxi Beijing International Studies University people Living people 1951 births Politicians from Shuozhou Chinese Communist Party politicians from Shanxi People's Republic of China politicians from Shanxi