Fang Xiaoyu

Fang Xiaoyu (Chinese: 方晓宇; July 1952 – May 13, 2010) was a Chinese politician and geophysicist who served as executive vice governor of Hainan Province and a member of the Standing Committee of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). He was a delegate to the 9th National People's Congress and a representative to the 16th and 17th National Congresses of the CCP.^[1]

Fang was born in July 1952 in Lixian, Hebei Province. He began working in January 1969 as a sent-down youth in Xiangyang County and Lushan County, Henan Province. From 1971 to 1977, he worked as a laborer with the Henan Geological Survey and Mapping Team. He was admitted to the Department of Geophysical Exploration at Wuhan Institute of Geology in 1977, graduating in May 1980 with a degree in geophysics. Fang joined the Chinese Communist Party in April 1979.^[2]

After graduation, Fang worked as a technician and assistant engineer with the 14th Geological Team of the Henan Provincial Bureau of Geology. In 1981, he was appointed deputy secretary of the Communist Youth League Committee of the Bureau’s Surveying and Mapping Team, and in 1982 he joined the Henan Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League as a staff member in the Department of Young Workers. He later became director of the Organization Department and, in 1984, deputy secretary and member of the Party group of the Henan Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League.^[3]

Between 1988 and 1989, Fang studied at the Central Party School’s training program for young and middle-aged cadres. From 1990 to 1993, he was seconded to Ruzhou, Henan Province, where he successively served as deputy Party secretary, acting mayor, and mayor. In 1993, he was appointed vice mayor of Anyang, and the following year he joined the city’s Party committee standing committee while continuing as vice mayor. During this period, he pursued on-the-job graduate studies in management engineering at Tianjin University and attended the Central Party School’s reform class.^[4]

Fang became acting mayor of Anyang in August 1997 and was confirmed as mayor later that year. He served as deputy Party secretary and mayor of Anyang until January 2001, when he was promoted to Party secretary of the city and chairman of the Standing Committee of the Anyang Municipal People’s Congress.^[5]

In December 2003, Fang was transferred to Hainan Province, where he was appointed member of the Standing Committee of the CCP Hainan Provincial Committee and head of the Organization Department. In March 2007, he became executive vice governor of Hainan Province and deputy secretary of the provincial government’s Party leadership group. He held the position until April 2010. Fang died in May 2010 at the age of 57.^[6]