10 Facts About Liu Weiping

Liu Weiping is a Chinese politician, currently serving as Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Liu Weiping served as Governor of Gansu from 2010 to 2016, and prior to that, Vice-Governor of Qinghai Province and mayor of Nanchang.

Liu Weiping entered the work force in 1968 as a sent-down youth in Nanchang County, Jiangxi province, and in 1970 started working at the Hongdu Machinery Building Factory under the then Ministry of Aerospace Industry.

In 1972 Liu Weiping enrolled at the Nanjing Institute of Aeronautics in Nanjing, studying aircraft design.

Liu Weiping joined the Chinese Communist Party in January 1974.

In 1986 Liu was transferred to the provincial government of Jiangxi, working under then Jiangxi governor Wu Guanzheng, and then rising through the ranks to become Mayor of Nanchang, the provincial capital, in 1995.

In July 2001 Liu Weiping was transferred to distant Qinghai province to become its Vice-Governor, then in May 2003, Liu was named secretary-general of the Qinghai party committee, reporting to then provincial party chief Zhao Leji; he was then elevated to Deputy Communist Party Secretary in August 2004.

In July 2010 Liu Weiping was appointed Acting Governor of Gansu, and on 18 January 2011 he was elected Governor by the Gansu Provincial Congress.

Such a transfer was considered unusual as Liu Weiping had not yet reached the mandated retirement age for active provincial-ministerial officials at 65; moreover, Liu Weiping was moved from a position of power in government to a deputy academic position, the only such case since the 18th Party Congress, raising the eyebrows of some political observers.

Liu Weiping was an alternate member of the 17th Central Committee, and a full member of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.