Chen Deming

Chen Deming was born in Shanghai in 1949, and started his career in rural Jiangxi Province in 1969 during the Cultural Revolution. In 1980, he was transferred to Jiangsu Province, in the east, to work in the Jiangsu Food Processing Co.'s office. He worked for five years in the food industry, then was named deputy director of Jiangsu's commerce department. In 1993, he was promoted to deputy secretary general of the provincial government and later became the deputy party chief and mayor of Suzhou, also in Jiangsu. Between 2002 and 2006, Chen was deputy governor and then governor of the northern province of Shaanxi. In May 2006, he was appointed deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission and in December 2007 he became minister of commerce.