Ren Xuefeng (; 26 October 1965 – 31 October 2019) was a Chinese politician and business executive. Ren was an early leader of the

Binhai New Area Binhai, fully known as Binhai New Area (), abbreviated as Binhai and Bincheng, is a sub-provincial division, new area and special economic zone of China under the jurisdiction of Tianjin, People's Republic of China, located in the eastern co ...

in Tianjin and served as the city's vice-mayor for eight years. He was transferred to

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

province in 2014, where he served as

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 ...

Guangzhou Guangzhou, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Canton or Kwangchow, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Guangdong Provinces of China, province in South China, southern China. Located on the Pearl River about nor ...

and Deputy Party Secretary of Guangdong. He was appointed Deputy Party Secretary of

Chongqing ChongqingPostal Romanization, Previously romanized as Chungking ();. is a direct-administered municipality in Southwestern China. Chongqing is one of the four direct-administered municipalities under the State Council of the People's Republi ...

in October 2018, but died in office a year later at age 54.

Early life and career in Tianjin

Ren Xuefeng was born on 26 October 1965 in

Xingtai Xingtai ( zh, s= , t=邢臺, p=Xíngtái , w=Hsing2-tʻai2), formerly known as Xingzhou and Shunde, is a prefecture-level city in southern Hebei province, People's Republic of China. It has a total area of and administers 4 districts, 2 coun ...

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 ...

, China. He 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 July 1985. He graduated from

Hebei University of Technology The Hebei University of Technology (HEBUT; ) is a provincial public university in Tianjin, China. It is affiliated with the province of Hebei, and co-funded by the Hebei Provincial Government, Tianjin Municipal Government, and the Ministry of Ed ...

in 1988 with a degree in organic

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of the operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials ...

. He later studied at

Nankai University Nankai University is a public university in Tianjin, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education of China. The university is part of Project 211, Project 985, and the Double First-Class Construction. Nankai University was establ ...

Business School on a part-time basis, earning a

Doctor of Business Administration The Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) is a terminal degree in business administration. The DBA is classified as a research doctorate or professional doctorate depending on the granting university and country where the degree was awarded. ...

degree in 1998. He subsequently conducted postdoctoral research at the university from 1999 to 2001. From 1995 to 2002, Ren was the chief executive of the Tianjin New Technology Industrial Park, the predecessor of

. From 2004 to 2008 he served as Vice-Chairman, then Chairman of Hong Kong Jinlian (Tsinlein) Group Co. Ltd., the ''de facto'' representative office of the Tianjin government in Hong Kong. He served as Vice Mayor of

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

from 2008 to 2014.

Career in Guangdong and Chongqing

In August 2014, Ren was appointed

, the capital of

province. He replaced Wan Qingliang, who had been dismissed for corruption, and became the first person from outside Guangdong to serve as the top leader of its capital in 33 years. In February 2017, Ren was appointed Deputy Party Secretary of Guangdong. He left his post as party chief of Guangzhou in July 2018, after four years on the job. Ren was transferred out of Guangdong in October 2018 and appointed Deputy Party Secretary of

municipality, the No. 3 official behind Party Secretary

Chen Min'er Chen Min'er (; born 29 September 1960) is a Chinese politician and a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party who is serving as the Party Secretary of Tianjin. Chen spent most of his career in his native Zhejiang province, servin ...

and Mayor

Tang Liangzhi Tang Liangzhi (; born 12 June 1960) is a Chinese politician who is the current party branch secretary of the Anhui Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He was previously mayor of Chongqing from January 2 ...

. Although his new position was officially on the same level as his old one, it was generally viewed as a demotion as Chongqing is not as economically prosperous and strategically important as Guangdong. Ren was an alternate member of the 18th and

19th 19 (nineteen) is the natural number following 18 and preceding 20. It is a prime number. Mathematics Nineteen is the eighth prime number. Number theory 19 forms a twin prime with 17, a cousin prime with 23, and a sexy prime with 13. ...

Central Committees of the Chinese Communist Party.

Death

On 24 October 2019, Ren met with Sylvain Laurent, the Asia-Pacific region CEO of the French software company

Dassault Systèmes Dassault Systèmes SE () (abbreviated 3DS) is a French Multinational corporation, multinational software corporation which develops software for 3D product design, simulation, manufacturing and other 3D related products. Founded in 1981, it is ...

, in Chongqing. After the conclusion of the Fourth Plenum of the 19th Central Committee, Ren was unexpectedly absent from an important meeting of the Chongqing Party Committee on 1 November 2019. Two days later, government media in Chongqing reported that Ren had "recently died of an illness", aged 54. According to the Hong Kong newspaper ''

Sing Tao Daily The ''Sing Tao Daily'' (also known as ''Sing Tao Jih Pao''; ) is among Hong Kong's oldest Chinese language newspapers. It is owned by Sing Tao News Corporation, of which Kwok Ying-shing () is chairman. Its English-language sister is the free ...

'', Ren had been under intensive medical care after falling from a building, and had missed the Fourth Plenum. The paper reported the following day that he died on 31 October 2019, likely in Beijing.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ren, Xuefeng 2019 deaths 1965 births People's Republic of China politicians from Hebei Political office-holders in Chongqing Political office-holders in Guangdong Political office-holders in Tianjin Politicians from Xingtai Hebei University of Technology alumni Nankai University alumni Chinese Communist Party politicians from Hebei Businesspeople from Hebei