32 Facts About Chen Quanguo

Chen Quanguo is a Chinese retired politician who was the Party Secretary of Tibet from 2011 to 2016 and the Party Secretary of Xinjiang from 2016 to 2021, making him the only person to serve as the Party Secretary for both autonomous regions.

Originally from Henan, Chen was among the first batch of students to graduate university after the resumption of Gaokao examinations in 1978.

Chen Quanguo worked up the ranks in the party bureaucracy in his home province from a minor local official to the deputy provincial party chief.

In 2016, Chen Quanguo was promoted to the party secretary of Xinjiang.

Chen Quanguo has since then attracted press for overseeing Xinjiang internment camps targeting Turkic minorities in the region, and he is considered as one of the main architects of the persecution of Uyghurs in China.

Chen Quanguo is a native of Pingyu County, Henan province.

In December 1973, at the age of 18, Chen Quanguo enlisted in the People's Liberation Army for four years.

Chen Quanguo served with the First Army, Third Division Artillery Regiment.

Chen Quanguo joined the Chinese Communist Party in February 1976.

Chen Quanguo graduated from Zhengzhou University in December 1981 and returned to work in his hometown of Pingyu, Henan.

From 1995 to 1997 Chen Quanguo enrolled as a part-time student at the School of Business Administration of Wuhan University of Technology, obtaining a master's degree in economics.

Chen Quanguo was promoted to Vice-Governor of Henan Province in January 1998, and worked in the administration of then Henan Governor Li Keqiang.

In November 2000 Chen Quanguo was appointed by the CCP head of the Standing committee of the Henan Provincial committee in the provincial Organization Department.

In November 2009, Chen Quanguo was transferred to neighboring Hebei and promoted to Acting Governor and Deputy Party Secretary of the province.

Chen Quanguo replaced Hu Chunhua, who became the Party Secretary of Inner Mongolia.

On 8 May 2012, Chen Quanguo was elected the first secretary of the party committee of the Tibet Military Region.

Shortly after Chen Quanguo took up his position in August 2011, the region advertised positions for 2,500 additional police, and Chen Quanguo implemented a new security policy for Tibet in the form of "convenience police stations".

Chen Quanguo instituted a policy called the "double-linked household management system" to surveil 81,140 households in the Tibetan Autonomous Region, comprising more than three million people mobilized for security and social issues.

In March 2011, before Chen Quanguo began his tenure, the Dalai Lama resigned from his political role to continue in his role as Tibet's spiritual leader.

In December 2013, Chen Quanguo described his policy as a "Stability Maintenance Campaign" in a statement, included in a Human Rights Watch report:.

On 29 August 2016, Chen Quanguo became the Party Secretary of Xinjiang, replacing Zhang Chunxian.

Chen Quanguo was considered as the best fit for this as he has been successful in controlling Tibet in the past.

Chen Quanguo concurrently served as the first secretary and political commissar of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps Party Committee.

Chen Quanguo is a member of the 19th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, elected in 2017.

Chen Quanguo was previously an alternate of the 17th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, and a full member of the 18th Central Committee.

Chen Quanguo was succeeded by Governor of Guangdong Ma Xingrui with immediate effect.

Chen Quanguo has supposedly overseen the construction of a network of internment camps.

Chen Quanguo expanded the detention camps in Xinjiang holding Muslim ethnic minorities.

In 2022, Chen Quanguo was appointed as the deputy head of CCP Central Rural Work Leading Group.

Chen Quanguo retired after the 20th National Congress of the CCP, due to the fact that he was not re-elected to the Central Committee despite being young enough to do so.

Chen Quanguo has a daughter who attended a school in the UK while he was the governor of Hebei.

The South China Morning Post has said that Chen Quanguo is known for not putting jokes, slogans or personal anecdotes in official speeches.