Sun Chunlan ( zh , s = 孙春兰 ; born 24 May 1950) is a retired Chinese politician. She served as the second-ranked Vice Premier of China and the highest-ranking incumbent female government official until March 2023. Previously, she served as a member of the

Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party The Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, officially the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is the executive committee of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party. Currently, the bureau i ...

. Sun served as the party chief of the coastal city of

Dalian Dalian ( ) is a major sub-provincial port city in Liaoning province, People's Republic of China, and is Liaoning's second largest city (after the provincial capital Shenyang) and the third-most populous city of Northeast China (after Shenyang ...

and as the First Secretary of

All-China Federation of Trade Unions The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) is the national trade union center and people's organization of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the largest trade union in the world with 302 million members in 1,713,000 primary tra ...

. From 2009 to 2014, Sun served in two prominent regional posts, first as the Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary of

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern 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 capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

province, then 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 ...

, one of China's four

direct-controlled municipalities A direct-controlled municipality is the highest level classification for cities used by unitary state A unitary state is a (Sovereign state, sovereign) State (polity), state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the ...

. Her tenure in Fujian made her the second female provincial-level party chief since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 (the first was Wan Shaofen). Between 2014 and 2017, she served as head of the United Front Work Department of the

Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, officially the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is the Central committee, highest organ when the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, national congress is not ...

Early life and education

Sun was born on 24 May 1950 in Raoyang County,

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 ...

. She enrolled in the Anshan Industrial Technology Academy in

Liaoning ) , image_skyline = , image_alt = , image_caption = Clockwise: Mukden Palace in Shenyang, Xinghai Square in Dalian, Dalian coast, Yalu River at Dandong , image_map = Liaoning in China (+all claims hatched).svg , ...

in 1965. After graduating with a degree in mechanics in 1969, Sun worked at Anshan Clock Factory, which made watches."Sun is widely considered a protégé of Hu Jintao, but it is unclear where and when Sun established her client relationship with Hu. Their political connection likely occurred or was consolidated during her study at the Central Party School in the early 1990s, when Hu served as president of the school." Cheng Li
Sun Chunlan 孙春兰: One of China's Top Future Leaders to Watch
. The Brookings Institution John L. Thornton China Center, originally published in the ''China Leadership Monitor''. Accessed on 1 January 2014. There she rose from the shop floor to membership of the factory's CCP branch in 1971, which managed the operations of the factory. She joined the Chinese Communist Party in May 1973, during the latter stages of the Cultural Revolution. In 1974, she became the Communist Youth League secretary of the Light Industry Bureau of Anshan City. She was then transferred to the Anshan Textiles Factory to work as a manager in 1977, working there until 1988. In 1988 she became the chair of the women's federation of Anshan, working there until 1991.

Career

In 1990, Sun was transferred to work in the organs reporting directly to the provincial party leadership, paving the way for further career advancement. She became the deputy head of the Workers’ Union of Liaoning in 1991, and the head of the Women’s Association of Liaoning in 1993. In 1994 she became head of the Workers’ Union of Liaoning, the provincial trade union federation, a year later she began sitting on the Liaoning

provincial Party Standing Committee Members of the standing committees of the Chinese Communist Party provincial-level committees, commonly referred to as ''Shengwei Changwei'' (), make up the top ranks of the provincial-level organizations of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). I ...

; achieving such a feat at age 45 was rare. In 1997, Sun was named deputy party secretary of Liaoning and president of the provincial party school. In 2001, the party secretary of the bustling coastal city of

departed the city to become the governor of Liaoning. Sun was then confirmed as party secretary of Dalian with party committee members unanimously confirming her nomination. She served in the post from 2001 to 2005, before being transferred to work in Beijing. Sun was named the Vice Chair of the

(ACFTU) at the Third Session of the 14th ACFTU Executive Committee, and then the First Secretary of the ACFTU Secretariat at the Eighth Session of the 14th ACFTU Presidium In December 2005.

Fujian

In a December 2009 re-shuffle, Sun Chunlan was named party secretary of Fujian Province, the first female to take such a high-level secretaryship since Wan Shaofen, Party Secretary of

Jiangxi ; Gan: ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = , translit_lang1_type3 = , translit_lang1_info3 = , image_map = Jiangxi in China (+all claims hatched).svg , mapsize = 275px , map_caption = Location ...

in the 1980s. Provincial party chief positions are of special significance and are some of the most powerful positions of the land; that Sun assumed a ''bona fide'' "power position" was not only rare for a woman, but also made her well positioned for further advancement.

Tianjin

After the 18th Party Congress held in November 2012, Sun became the party secretary of

municipality, China's richest provincial-level jurisdiction by GDP at the time, taking the post vacated by Zhang Gaoli, who became a member of the Politburo Standing Committee. As Party Secretary of Tianjin, Sun joined the elite ranks of the

as one of the two women on the body (the other was Vice-Premier Liu Yandong). She additionally became the first female party chief of a direct-controlled municipality in party history.

United Front Work Department

After the investigation and dismissal of former Hu Jintao aide Ling Jihua as head of the United Front Work Department, Sun was named as head of the department on December 31, 2014. Sun was the first United Front chief to hold a concurrent Politburo seat since Ding Guangen. Her post in Tianjin was succeeded on an interim basis by Mayor Huang Xingguo. Since Sun ascended to the United Front chief position, Xi Jinping has taken on a new ''datongzhan'' (大统战) strategy for United Front work, expanding the scope of the United Front Work Department. In 2015, Wang Zhengwei, Vice-Chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, was named deputy head of the department, assisting Sun, creating a unique situation where two of the top leaders of the United Front were held by "deputy national leader" ranked figures. Sun is a member of the 19th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party. She was also an alternate of the 15th and 16th Central Committees of the Chinese Communist Party, and a full member of the 17th, 18th and 19th Central Committees.

Vice Premier

In October 2017, after the 19th Party Congress, Sun was reappointed as a member of the Politburo. In March 2018, Sun was appointed as the Vice Premier of China. She was awarded the Gold Olympic Order after the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), were an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Beijing, China, and surrounding areas wit ...

for her responsibility for the anti-COVID management of the Olympic Winter Games. According to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', Sun Chunlan become a target of Chinese netizens expressing their anger towards the Zero-COVID policy. Sun Chunlan retired from Politburo after 20th Party Congress, and as Vice Premier in March 2023.

Post-retirement

On 9 November 2023, Sun Chunlan became the president of the International Confucian Association.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sun, Chunlan 1950 births Living people People's Republic of China politicians from Hebei Chinese Communist Party politicians from Hebei Politicians from Hengshui Political office-holders in Liaoning Political office-holders in Fujian Members of the 18th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party Members of the 17th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Alternates of the 16th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Alternates of the 15th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party Members of the 19th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party 21st-century Chinese women politicians 21st-century Chinese politicians Recipients of the Olympic Order Heads of the United Front Work Department Party Secretaries of Fujian