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Liu He.
Liu He (simplified Chinese: 刘鹤; traditional Chinese: 劉鶴; pinyin: Liú Hè; Wade–Giles: Liu2 Ho4; lit. 'Liu Crane'; born 25 January 1952) is a Chinese economist and retired politician who served as a vice premier of the People's Republic of China from 2018 to 2023. Additionally, he served as the director of the Office serving the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) from 2013 to 2023, the director of the Financial Stability and Development Committee from 2017 to 2023, as well as a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party from 2017 to 2022.
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Liu studied industrial economics in the Renmin University of China in the 1980s, he worked in various jobs in the State Council Development Research Center, the State Planning Commission, the State Information Center, and the State Council Information Office between 1986 and 2003, being responsible for economic affairs. He was a deputy director of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs between 2003 and 2011, and deputy director of the Development Research Center between 2011 and 2013; during this time, he was an influential advisor to CCP general secretary Hu Jintao on economic affairs.
Liu became a member of the CCP Central Committee in 2013, when he became a deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, as well as the director of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs. During this period, he advised CCP general secretary Xi Jinping on economic affairs, and was considered a primary architect of Xi's economic policies. He was promoted to the Politburo in 2017 and became a vice premier in 2018, where he continued to take on economic policies and also became the top trade negotiator with the United States due to the China–United States trade war. Liu retired from the Politburo in 2022, and stepped down from vice premiership in 2023.
He has published widely on macroeconomics, Chinese industrial and economic development policy, new economic theory and the information industry, writing five books and over 200 articles.[1][4]
Liu briefly worked as a researcher in the Development Research Center of the State Council between 1986 and 1987.[1] Afterwards, he worked as a deputy director of the Research Office of the State Planning Commission, and later a deputy director of the Industrial Policy and Long-term Planning Department of the Commission between 1987 and 1998.[1] Between the years of 1998 and 2001, he serves as the executive deputy director of the State Information Center, and concurrently the chairman of the China Economic Information Company.[1] He was a deputy director at the State Council Information Office (SCIO) between 2001 and 2003, in charge of e-commerce and international cooperation.[1]
Liu became a deputy director of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs in 2003, a position he served until 2011, where he was responsible for macro-economic policy planning and drafting speeches for CCP general secretary Hu Jintao during the Central Economic Work Conference.[1] He briefly returned to the Development Research Center between 2011 and 2013, where he served as the CCP secretary and deputy director.[1]
In 2013, he became a member of the CCP Central Committee, and was appointed as a deputy director and CCP secretary of the National Development and Reform Commission, serving in that office until 2018.[1] He also became the director of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Financial and Economic Affairs, which was later upgraded to a commission in 2018.[1] During this time, Liu began advising CCP general secretary Xi Jinping on a series of economic initiatives, and was believed to be one of the primary architects of Chinese economic policy at the time. He has been described as "one of the technocrats that Xi Jinping trusts a great deal".[5] He was the chief drafter of the communiqué at the Third Plenum of the 18th National CCP Congress, which promised to give "market forces" a "decisive" role in allocating resources.[1]