Ma Guoqiang (; born November 1963) is a Chinese politician, engineer, and business executive. He had served as

Deputy Communist Party Secretary In modern Chinese politics, a Deputy Party Committee Secretary (; also translated as Deputy Party Secretary, deputy party chief, vice party chief) serves as the lieutenant to the Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary, and thus the depu ...

Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...

province and Communist Party Secretary of

Wuhan Wuhan; is the capital of Hubei, China. With a population of over eleven million, it is the most populous city in Hubei and the List of cities in China by population, eighth-most-populous city in China. It is also one of the nine National cent ...

, the capital of Hubei, from 2018 to 2020. Ma previously served as Chairman of Baowu Group, China's largest steelmaker. He is an alternate and then a member of the

19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party The 19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party was elected by the 19th National Congress in 2017, and sat until the next National Congress was convened in 2022. It formally succeeded the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Commun ...

and was a delegate to the

8th National People's Congress The 8th National People's Congress (NPC) was in session from 1993 to 1998. It succeeded the 7th National People's Congress. It held five sessions in this period. Seat distribution The first session Elected state leaders In the 1st Session in ...

Early life and education

Ma was born in

Dingzhou Dingzhou, or Tingchow in Postal Map Romanization, and formerly called Ding County or Dingxian, is a county-level city in the prefecture-level city of Baoding, Hebei, Hebei Province. As of 2020, Dingzhou had a population of 1.1 million. Dingzhou ...

Hebei Hebei is a Provinces of China, province in North China. It is China's List of Chinese administrative divisions by population, sixth-most populous province, with a population of over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. It bor ...

in November 1963. He is a member of the Hui ethnic group. In September 1980, he entered Huazhong Institute of Technology (now

Huazhong University of Science and Technology The Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST; ) is a public university in Wuhan, Hubei, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 985, Project 211, and the Double First-Cl ...

), majoring in materials management and engineering. In September 1984 he entered the graduate school of Beijing Iron and Steel Institute (now University of Science and Technology Beijing) and joined the

Chinese Communist Party The Communist Party of China (CPC), also translated into English as Chinese Communist Party (CCP), is the founding and One-party state, sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Founded in 1921, the CCP emerged victorious in the ...

in December 1985. After earning his master's degree in 1986, he was hired by the institute as a faculty member. In September 1991, he was sent to Germany to study at the

RWTH Aachen University RWTH Aachen University (), in German ''Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen'', is a German public research university located in Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With more than 47,000 students enrolled in 144 study prog ...

on a government scholarship. He returned to China in September 1993 and continued to teach at the University of Science and Technology Beijing.

Career at Baowu

Ma began working at Baosteel of Shanghai in July 1995, and became director of the Planning and Finance Department in 1999. He became deputy general manager of Baosteel in March 2001 and was promoted to general manager in April 2009. In July 2013, he was appointed general manager of

Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation (WISCO) is a Chinese state-owned enterprise. It started to operate in 1958 in Qingshan District, Wuhan, Qingshan, Wuhan, Hubei, China. It was administered by State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration C ...

. He was elevated to its chairman and party secretary in May 2015. When Baosteel and Wuhan Steel merged to form Baowu Steel in October 2016, he was appointed the chairman and party secretary of the new company, China's largest steelmaker.

Political career

Ma was a delegate to the

(1993–1998). He was elected an alternate of the

in 2017. In March 2018, he was transferred from Baowu to the provincial government of

and appointed

deputy party secretary In modern Chinese politics, a Deputy Party Committee Secretary (; also translated as Deputy Party Secretary, deputy party chief, vice party chief) serves as the lieutenant to the Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary, and thus the depu ...

of the province. On 20 July 2018, he received the additional appointment as

party secretary In politics, a party secretary is a senior official within a political party with responsibility for the organizational and daily political work. In most parties, the party secretary is second in rank to the party leader (or party chairman). In s ...

, the city's top official. The position had been vacant for four months since his predecessor Chen Yixin was transferred to the national government. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Wuhan residents criticized Ma and his subordinate, mayor Zhou Xianwang for their slow response to the epidemic. In an interview with

China Central Television China Central Television (CCTV) is the State media, national television broadcaster of China, established in 1958. CCTV is operated by the National Radio and Television Administration which reports directly to the Publicity Department of th ...

(CCTV) on 27 January 2020, Zhou admitted that the city government had failed to promptly disclose information about the outbreak and offered to resign, although he added that "it's an infectious disease, and relevant information should be released according to the law. As a local government, we can only disclose information after being authorized." When Ma was interviewed by television host Bai Yansong four days later, he expressed his feelings of "regret, guilt and self-blame". On February 13, 2020, Ma was removed from his posts as deputy party secretary of Hubei and party secretary of Wuhan. He was succeeded by Wang Zhonglin, Communist Party Secretary of Jinan. In August 2021, he became a member of the Party Branch Committee of Hubei People's Congress. On 23 January 2022, he became vice chairman of Hubei People's Congress. In October 2022, he became a member of the 19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ma, Guoqiang 1968 births Living people Engineers from Hebei Huazhong University of Science and Technology alumni Hui people Businesspeople in steel Baowu Chinese chief executives Chinese expatriates in Germany Chinese Communist Party politicians from Hebei Delegates to the 8th National People's Congress People's Republic of China politicians from Hebei Politicians from Baoding RWTH Aachen University alumni University of Science and Technology Beijing alumni Academic staff of the University of Science and Technology Beijing Alternates of the 19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Members of the 19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party