Hu Chunhua

Hu Chunhua (Chinese 胡春华, pinyin Hú Chūnhuá; born 1963 in Wufeng, Hubei Province) is a politician in the People's Republic of China. He is counted among the Sixth Generation of Leaders of the People's Republic of China.

Hu was born Wang Chunhua in a poor village in the Tujia autonomous county of Wufeng, Hu also belongs to the Tujia minority. He took his mother's surname, and has no relation to former President Hu Jintao. He was an exceptional student and got a place at Peking University. After graduating from university, he applied to work in Tibet.

After joining the Chinese Communist Party in 1983, Tibet began a steep climb up the party hierarchy. This was encouraged by Li Keqiang and Hu Jintao. Among the posts he was selected for were that of Deputy Party Secretary of the Autonomous Region and Vice Chairman of the Government of Tibet. He is known in China for his very good knowledge of Tibetan, to which his mother tongue Tujia (also a Tibetan Burmese language) has certainly contributed. Among his achievements are the revival of the Tibetan economy, the fight against separatist organizations, and the settlement of more Han Chinese migrants.

In 2008, Hu was appointed governor of Hebei province. Hebei was the epicenter of the Chinese Milk Scandal, but Hu survived the scandal unscathed. This is possibly due to protection from Hu Jintao.

In November 2009, he was appointed party secretary of the Inner Mongolia region. He succeeded Chu Bo there, who had led the region to rapid economic growth, but this had been accompanied by massive environmental damage by mining companies and widespread corruption, which had brought him to the attention of the party's disciplinary commission. In this position, he developed a two-pronged strategy against the 2011 unrest in Inner Mongolia, consisting of mediation and decisive action by the security authorities. The short-term pacification of this conflict contributed significantly to his high reputation.

He has been a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China since 2007. In November 2012, he was elected to the Politburo of the CCP. From December 2012 to 2017, he held the post of Party Secretary in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong. Since 2018, he has been Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China.