Former Chinese president Hu Jintao’s son Hu Haifeng promoted to deputy minister after serving a decade in regional posts
Hu, a computer science graduate from Beijing Jiaotong University with a postgraduate degree in nuclear electronics and an executive MBA from Tsinghua University, did not enter into politics until 2013.
He worked as a senior engineer at the state-owned Tsinghua Holdings and later became the president of Nuctech, a security scanning equipment maker controlled by Tsinghua Holdings.
He was then transferred to Zhejiang Tsinghua Yangtze River Delta Research Institute, serving as party boss of the official think tank from 2009 to 2010.
A Zhejiang official who worked with Hu said he liked to keep “a very low profile” and tried to avoid unnecessary attention.
A researcher from China’s central party school said the fact that Hu had to accumulate a decade of regional work experience before being granted a role in Beijing showed that the promotion of the descendants of party top leaders was much stricter under Xi.
“This might be a good thing for Hu moving forward because Xi shows a strong preference to those who have regional experiences because he wants these cadres to make policies based on their knowledge of China’s ground situation. Those who only climb the career ladder in Beijing’s ministries often get played out when they land on regional roles facing sophisticated local officials,” said the researcher who declined to be named because of the sensitive topic.
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Former Chinese president Hu Jintao’s congress exit a break from the Communist Party script
Hu’s father stepped down as president in 2013, handing the position to Xi. Under China’s party state system, the president is also the chief of the ruling Communist Party and the country’s military.