Hunan Vice Governor Appointed Vice Minister of Finance

What’s new: Zhu Zhongming, a vice governor of Hunan province, has been named a vice minister at the Ministry of Finance in Beijing, where he will be responsible for several departments including agriculture and rural affairs, ecological environment, accounting, and supervision, according to an update (link in Chinese) published on the ministry’s website.

Zhu replaces Cheng Lihua, who was appointed (link in Chinese) deputy secretary of the Anhui provincial Communist Party committee in April. 


Zhu, 49, a native of Haining, Zhejiang province, took up his position earlier in July, and is the youngest of five deputies under Finance Minister Liu Kun. Zhu is in charge of several accounting bodies including the three national accounting institutes in Beijing, Shanghai and Xiamen. He will also work with the National Agricultural Credit Guarantee Alliance Co. Ltd. and the National Green Development Fund Co. Ltd., which operates China’s first state-backed national environmental fund dedicated to investing in green projects and companies.

The background: Although the position will be Zhu’s first in the central government, he is a government finance veteran who has spent most of his career working in positions in the Zhejiang’s finance department. He has been on the promotion fast-track for the past two years. In January 2020 (link in Chinese), he was appointed director of Zhejiang’s Department of Finance and in April 2020 he was appointed a vice governor (link in Chinese) of Hunan province, with responsibility (link in Chinese) for education, civil affairs and health care.

For eight months in 2012, Zhu served as a vice mayor of Wenzhou, a city of about 9.6 million (link in Chinese) in Zhejiang known for its vibrant entrepreneurship and private business environment.

Zhu, who is also a senior accountant, majored in auditing at Wuhan University’s school of economics. He also has a master’s in public administration.

Quick Takes are condensed versions of China-related stories for fast news you can use. To read the full Caixin article in Chinese, click here.

Contact reporter Kelsey Cheng (kelseycheng@caixin.com) and editor Nerys Avery (nerysavery@caixin.com)

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