Name
Ding Xuexiang丁薛祥
Current status
Xi Jinping’s Chief of Staff
Born
1962
Relevance to Tibet
19th Politburo Member. As a 6th generation leader Ding has the potential for further promotion.
Overview
Pronunciation: Ding Hsoo’air-hs’yang
Born: 1962, Nantong Jiangsu Province
Education: A graduate of Fudan University School of Management with a Master of Science degree; A professor-level senior engineer
Career: Served in various roles in Shanghai, including serving under Xi Jinping and was in 2013 moved to Beijing as Deputy Director of the General Office of the CPC.
Prospects: Promoted to the 19th Politburo. Secretary of the Central Committee Secretariat
Relevance to Tibet: Xi Jinping’s Chief of Staff. A 6th generation leader with potential for more senior roles in future.
Standing in the Party and Career Highlights:
Standing in the Party and Career Highlights:
This is a “mini” profile, see information above right.
Background information about Sixth Generation Leaders:
“Sixth generation” leaders were, in theory, due to reach the top in 2022, when the leaders who took office in 2012 have served two five-year terms. [Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang are fifth generation; Mao Zedong was first generation.] However, with Xi Jinping’s removal of the two-term limit, there is no telling when – or if – this generation will get its chance to lead.
Born in the 1960s, a number of sixth generation officials have been named by China commentators in recent years as having serious leadership prospects. They include: Hu Chunhua, Zhou Qiang, Nur Bekri, Lu Hao, Chen Min’er, Zhang Qingwei and Zhang Guoqing. Names that were previously on this list but have suffered political downfall are Sun Zhengcai and Su Shilin.
The tradition of former leaders selecting their successor’s successor – which applied to Deng Xiaoping (choosing Hu Jintao) and Jiang Zemin (choosing Xi himself) – would appear to be in serious doubt. Kerry Brown, writing in the Diplomat in December 2014 observed: “The idea of Xi Jinping’s predecessor Hu Jintao having much say in [the choice of next leader] seems to grow more remote with each passing day, as Xi appears more and more dominant. It goes against political, let alone psychological, logic to think that Xi might, for mere form’s sake, bow to Hu in his choice.”
A general summary of this age group by Melinda Liu, Newsweek, October, 2007:
Melinda Liu, writing in Newsweek in October, 2007, said: The ’60s Generation, as they’re also known, are seen as worldlier, more traveled and less doctrinaire than any previous Chinese generation….. the Gen-Sixers are less ideological and more market-savvy; their peers include private-sector millionaires and environmental activists. But they’re also apt to be nationalistic, even arrogant, some analysts say. “They lack the humility of [their elders],” says Cheng Li, a Sinologist at the Brookings Institution in Washington. “Some of them are quite spoiled, in my view.”
Contact Information:
- Address: Zhongnanhai, Xi Chang’an Jie, Beijing 100017.
- Website: www.gov.cn
- Phone: + 86 10 63070913
- Fax: + 86 10 63070900