Wang Qishan
Wang Qishan was appointed vice premier in March 2008. He became a member of the 17th Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee Politburo in October 2007.
Wang was born in July 1948 in Qingdao, Shandong, though he is considered a native of Tianzhen, Shanxi. In 1969, Wang was sent to work at an agricultural commune in rural Shaanxi's Yan'an County. After two years he was transferred to work in the Shaanxi provincial museum in Xi'an where he worked on and off until 1979. At the same time, Wang gained admittance into Northwest University, where he majored in history. He joined the CCP in 1983.
Wang began his post-college working career in 1979 as a researcher at the Modern History Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, an influential think tank. Between 1982 and 1988, he held concurrent positions at the Rural Development Research Center under the State Council and the Rural Policy Research Office of the Secretariat of the CCP's Central Committee.
In 1988, Wang worked as general manager and party secretary of the China Rural Trust and Investment Corp. He was appointed vice governor of the China Construction Bank in 1989 and vice governor of the People's Bank of China in 1993. Wang then became governor and party secretary of the China Construction Bank in 1994.
In 1997, Wang moved south to became a member of the Guangdong CCP Standing Committee prior to his 1998 appointment as vice governor of Guangdong. In 2000, he returned to Beijing to take the position of director of the State Council's Economic Restructuring Office. In 2002, Wang moved south again, this time to assume the role of party secretary of Hainan.
In April 2003, following the SARS epidemic and the removal of Beijing Mayor Meng Xuenong, Wang was quickly appointed acting mayor of Beijing and deputy party secretary of the Beijing municipal party committee. In June 2003, Wang became an executive president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games. He was confirmed as mayor of Beijing in February 2004, a position he held until December 2007.
Wang was an alternate member of the 14th CCP Central Committee and a member of the 15th and 16th CCP central committees.