He Guoqiang (; born October 1. 1943) is a retired senior leader of 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 ...

(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 Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, the party's anti-corruption agency. Earlier in his career, He served as the head of the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party, the Governor of

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its c ...

, and the Party Committee Secretary of

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a municipality in Southwest China. The official abbreviation of the city, "" (), was approved by the State Cou ...

Career

He Guoqiang was born in Xiangxiang,

Hunan Hunan (, ; ) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the South Central China region. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi ...

on October 1. 1943. He joined the

in January 1966 and joined the work force in September 1966. He graduated from the Inorganic Chemistry Department at the

Beijing Institute of Chemical Engineering Beijing University of Chemical Technology (BUCT, ), colloquially known in Chinese as Beihua (北化, ''Běihuà'') or Huada (化大, ''Huàdà''), is a public technological university in mainland China. BUCT was founded in 1958 and is a part ...

where he had majored in inorganics. With his university education, he held the title of ''Senior Engineer''. He was first assigned to work as a technician at the synthesis division of the Lunan Chemical Fertilizer Plant in Shandong. During his eleven years there he eventually made his way up to party branch secretary (''de facto'' head of the plant). Eventually He became an official at the chemical industry department of the Shandong provincial government. After that, he began taking on increasingly senior administrative roles, ascending through the ranks to become Party Committee Secretary in

Jinan Jinan (), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized as Tsinan, is the Capital (political), capital of Shandong province in East China, Eastern China. With a population of 9.2 million, it is the second-largest city i ...

, the capital of Shandong, in 1987, and a member of the Shandong provincial Party Standing Committee. In 1991, he became deputy minister of Chemical Industry. In October 1996, He was transferred to Fujian to become deputy governor, then acting governor. He assumed the post of the Governor of

between 1997 and 1999. In June 1999, he was named the party secretary of

, only the second person to take on the job after the city gained direct-controlled municipality status. He remained in Chongqing until 2002. He moved to national prominence that year, becoming the head of the Organization Department of the Chinese Communist Party, overseeing party personnel. He was named to the Politburo Standing Committee at the 17th Party Congress in November 2007, heading up the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, in charge of stamping out corruption with party officials, replacing

Wu Guanzheng Wu Guanzheng (born August 11, 1938), also spelled as Wu Kuan-cheng is a former Chinese politician and one of the major leaders of the Chinese Communist Party during the administration of Hu Jintao. He served on the Politburo Standing Committee ...

. He was ordered by General Secretary

Hu Jintao Hu Jintao (born 21 December 1942) is a Chinese politician who served as the 16–17th general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2002 to 2012, the 6th president of the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 2003 to 2013, an ...

to go into earthquake areas in the aftermath of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake. He Guoqiang was said to be a 'moderating' force on the PSC, with no apparent loyalties to any particular factions or patrons.

Family

He Guoqiang's eldest son, (; born June 7, 1971), is a former soldier who eventually went into business. He Jintao founded the private equity firm Nepoch Capital. He Jintao worked with

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the f ...

and

China Resources China Resources Holdings Company Limited (), or simply China Resources, is a Chinese state-owned conglomerate that owns a variety of businesses in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Some of its subsidiaries use the name in the form of the acronym CRC. ...

on various investment projects. Several media sources have linked He Jintao with the corruption case involving Song Lin, former chief executive of

. He Guoqiang's second son, He Jinlei (), was a vice president at the investment arm of China Development Bank, CDB Capital, a state-owned company which invested heavily in Alibaba's initial public offering in 2014. The wives and children of both of He Guoqiang's sons are said to be living in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Gov ...

of the United States. In May 2014, U.S.-based Chinese-language website ''Duowei'' reported that He's successor as central discipline secretary Wang Qishan scheduled a meeting with him to discuss ongoing investigation into the business activities of his sons, and He Jintao specifically. The same article mentioned that the likelihood of He Guoqiang's personal involvement in corruption was low, and that He urged his sons to cooperate with the investigation.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:He, Guoqiang Living people 1943 births Politicians from Xiangtan Governors of Fujian Chinese Communist Party politicians from Hunan Beijing University of Chemical Technology alumni People's Republic of China politicians from Hunan Political office-holders in Shandong Political office-holders in Chongqing Members of the 17th Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Members of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party Secretaries of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection Members of the 16th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party