- Xu Kuangdi
Xu Kuangdi KmstkNO ( _zh. 徐匡迪; born
1937 ) is a Chinese politician of the ruling Communist Party. He wasmayor of Shanghai from1995 to2001 . He supervised the transformation ofShanghai during his administration into a center for international investment and trade that helped lead the intensive development of China's economy. He was demoted in 2001, to a far more obscure and powerless position as party chief of the Academy of Engineering inBeijing , apparently as the result of an intra-party power struggle between PresidentJiang Zemin and PremierZhu Rongji , both former Mayors of Shanghai. Xu was replaced by Executive Vice-MayorChen Liangyu , one of Jiang's followers later arrested for corruption. He continues as Vice-Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.Biography
Xu was born in
Tongxiang , inZhejiang province. He graduated from the Beijing Institute of Iron and Steel Engineering in1959 , during the midst of theGreat Leap Forward , and was a professor there from 1959 to1963 , then at the Shanghai Institute of Engineering from 1963 to 1971, through the height of theCultural Revolution . He did not join theCommunist Party of China until 1983. He studied in Britain in 1982 and 1983 and worked inSweden from 1984 to 1985; he also won a national award for his design of astainless steel pipe for use in aircraft production.He held a number of other academic positions through 1991, when Zhu appointed him as director of the Shanghai Municipal Planning Committee, allegedly because he had remarked that he hated central planning. That position led to a number of increasingly powerful positions within the municipal government of Shanghai. He was an alternate member of the 14th CPC Central Committee and member of the 15th and 16th CPC Central Committees.
Xu is currently a Vice-Chairman of the
Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference , Party Chief and President of theChinese Academy of Engineering . He is a professor and doctoral supervisor atShanghai University .Honours
In 2006 Xu was made a Commander Grand Cross of the Swedish
Order of the Polar Star .At an October 4, 2007 ceremony, Xu received an honorary
Doctor of Engineering degree from thePolytechnic University of New York .
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