Pronunciation: Ma Xiaowei (pronunciation: Mah Siaow-way)
Chinese: 马晓伟
Title: Director, National Health Commission; Party Secretary, National Health Commission Party Leadership Group
Salutation: Director Ma
Ma Xiaowei is the director of the newly formed National Health Commission, and previously served as a deputy director of the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC). The NHFPC was dissolved and replaced the by National Health Commission in March 2018, and will focus less on policies related to government-set birth limits and more on medical and health system reforms to serve China’s aging society.
Born in 1959 in Shanxi Province, Ma graduated from China Medical University in 1982. He subsequently served as a cadre at the former Ministry of Health, followed by some time at a hospital affiliated with China Medical University, where he eventually became hospital administrator and party secretary. Afterward, he became director and party secretary of the Liaoning Province Department of Health. Starting in 2001, Ma served as a vice minister of the Ministry of Health, and continued as a deputy director of NHPFC after the Ministry of Health was dissolved in 2013 and many of its functions were absorbed into NHFPC.