Huang Kunming

Huang Kunming
黄坤明
Executive Deputy Head of the Central Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China
Incumbent
Assumed office December 2014
Head	Liu Qibao
Preceded by	Luo Shugang
Personal details
Born	November 1956 (age 59) Shanghang County, Fujian
Political party	Communist Party of China
Alma mater	Fujian Normal University Tsinghua University

Huang Kunming (Chinese: 黄坤明; born November 1956) is a Chinese politician, currently serving as the executive deputy head of the Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China (minister-level). Prior to his appointment he served in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, and is considered a close associate of Xi Jinping. He was the one time Communist Party Secretary of Hangzhou. Huang is an alternate member of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.

Career

Huang was born in Shanghang County, Fujian province. In December 1974, Huang began serving in the People's Liberation Army. Two years later, he joined the Communist Party of China. In 1977, after serving for three years in the army, he went back to his home county and became a secretary. He entered Fujian Normal University in 1978. After graduation, he was sent by the party to work in the Longyan region of Fujian in a series of administrative roles. He later rose through the hierarchy to become party chief of Yongding County, then in February 1998, following the conversion of the administrative status of Longyan from a Prefecture into a "City", Huang became its mayor.

In August 1999, he was sent to the city of Huzhou in neighbouring Zhejiang province to serve as mayor. In February 2003, he became party chief of Jiaxing, a prosperous city on China's east coast. By June 2007, Huang was named a member of the provincial Party Standing Committee and the head of the provincial party organization's Propaganda Department. At around the same time, he earned a Masters of Public Administration from Tsinghua University. In January 2010, Huang was named party chief of Hangzhou, one of about a dozen cities with "sub-provincial" status in China.

Huang became an alternate member of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China held in the fall of 2012. In October 2013, he was named deputy head of the Central Propaganda Department.^[1] In December 2014, he was promoted to executive deputy head, with rank equivalent to that of a minister.^[2] The executive deputy head position of the Propaganda Department is a powerful one, as it oversees roughly all day-to-day administrative aspects of the department. External observers have called Huang's installation in the position as a means to check the influence of Liu Yunshan, a member of the party's top ruling body the Politburo Standing Committee who is widely believed to be a conservative.^[3] Huang was also named chief of the Office of the Central Guidance Commission on Building Spiritual Civilization.

The later years of Huang's career roughly follows in the footsteps of Xi Jinping, who was named General Secretary of the Communist Party in 2012. Huang began working with Xi in Fujian province where Xi served as governor. Later Huang moved to Zhejiang during Xi's term as party chief there. After Xi rose to become party leader, Huang again was transferred from Zhejiang to the party centre.^[4] Because of Huang's close links with Xi, he is considered a member of the New Zhijiang Army, an informal grouping of Xi's closest associates who are likely destined for higher office in the near future.^[5]

References

1. "黄坤明出任中央宣传部副部长". Ifeng. October 23, 2013.
2. "黄坤明正式履新中宣部常务副部长" (in Chinese). Ifeng. January 1, 2015.
3. "习近平亲信黄坤明任中宣部副部长 给刘云山安钉子". Boxun. October 24, 2013.
4. "杭州市委书记黄坤明将履新职 担外省常委或上调中央". Takungpao. 2013-10-08.
5. Lan, Jiang (January 31, 2015). ""之江新军"崛起　"闽江旧部"归队". On.cc.