The Brookings Institute writes that “Sun Chunlan comes from a humble family, and her father was a worker. Sun is widely considered a protégé of Hu Jintao, but it is unclear where and when Sun established her client relationship with Hu. Their political connection likely occurred or was consolidated during her study at the Central Party School in the early 1990s, when Hu served as president of the school.”

According to Wikipedia Sun held positions in the Provincial Women’s Federation. She held many positions in the All China Federation of Trade Unions, rising to Secretary from 2005 – 2009. She was Party Secretary of Fujian Province 2009 – 2012 and Party Secretary of Tianjin Province from 2012 to 2014. She was Head of the United Front Work Department from 2014 – 2017 and appointed a Vice Premier of China in March 2018.

Sun is the only woman Member of the 19th Politburo (on the 18th Politburo there were two women; Sun and Liu Yandong). Brookings describes Sun as having an understated personality but capable of “political nerve”, for example in removing protégés of Bo Xilai from Dalian (when Mayor 2001 – 2005), well before Bo’s downfall.

In 2013 and 2014 Sun travelled fairly extensively in Europe and South East Asia. She was named as head of the United Front Work department on 31 December 2014, following the removal of disgraced fellow Hu Jintao protégé Ling Jihua.

After Sun’s appointment to the United Front Work Department, Professor Bo Zhiyue, writing in The Diplomat, hypothesised that this could mean she was being groomed as a possible replacement for Yu Zhengshen, as Chair of the Chinese National People’s Political Consultative Conference; however this did not transpire.

The CCP placed significant emphasis on United Front Work and Tibet in 2015. Xi Jinping presided over a United Front Conference in May, and at the end of July the Politburo announced the decision to create a Leading Group on United Front Work. The Sixth Work Forum on Tibet was held from 24 – 25 August 2015, prioritising stability and the “struggle against separatism” above economic development. Read ICT’s report, Major Policy Meeting on Tibet in Build Up to Sensitive Anniversary, 28 August 2015.

Sun Chunlan travelled on a number of occasions to “make inspections” of Tibetan areas prior to the 50th anniversary of the founding of the ‘Tibet Autonomous Region’ (September 2015). She visited Lhasa and Shigatse from 15 – 18 June 2015 and the prefectures of Mahlo (Chinese: Huangnan in Qinghai Province), Kanlho (Chinese: Gannan, in Gansu Province) and Ngaba (Chinese: Aba, in Sichuan Province) from 9 – 12 July 2015. Sun naturally attended the 50th anniversary events themselves.

• Address: 35 Fuyou Street Xicheng District, Beijing 100800.
• Website: http://www.zytzb.cn/09/
• Phone:not available
• Fax:not available