Huang Kunming

Huang Kunming (born November 1956) is a Chinese politician, currently serving as the Party secretary of Guangdong and a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party.

Huang spent most of his early career in Fujian and Zhejiang provinces, and is considered a close associate of Xi Jinping, the current general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party. From 2010 to 2013, he was the Party secretary of Hangzhou. Huang joined the CCP Publicity Department in 2014 as a deputy head, and became its head in 2017. In 2022, Huang became the Party secretary of Guangdong.

Huang was born in Shanghang County, Fujian province, on 15 November 1956. In December 1974, Huang began serving in the People's Liberation Army. Two years later, he joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In 1977, after serving for three years in the army, he went back to Tongxian Commune his home county as a "sent-down youth" and became a secretary. He entered Fujian Normal University in 1978, graduating with a bachelor's degree in politics in 1982.

After graduation, Huang was sent by the party to work in the Longyan region of Fujian in a series of administrative roles. He first worked as a clerk at the Young Cadre Division of the Organization Department of the Longyan Prefecture Party Committee from 1982 to 1988. He enrolled in the Central Party School in 1985, gaining a master's degree in economic management in 1988 via part-time studies. In 1988, he became the deputy director of the Party Committee's General Office, later becoming its director and the deputy secretary-general of Longyan Prefecture in 1991. In 1993, he became the Party Committee Secretary of Yongding County, then in February 1998, following the conversion of the administrative status of Longyan from a Prefecture into a "City", Huang became its mayor and party secretary.

In August 1999, he was sent to the city of Huzhou in neighboring Zhejiang province to serve as mayor. In February 2003, he became party secretary of Jiaxing, a prosperous city on China's east coast. During this time, Xi Jinping was the party secretary of Zhejiang; Huang is believed to have assisted Xi in preparing the "New Thought in Zhejiang" column, which was published in the Zhejiang Daily from 2003 to 2007.

Huang enrolled in the Tsinghua University School of Public Administration in 2005, gaining a doctoral degree in management in 2008 via part-time studies. By June 2007, Huang was named a member of the provincial Party Standing Committee and the head of the provincial party organization's Publicity Department. At around the same time, he earned a Masters of Public Administration from Tsinghua University. In January 2010, Huang was named party secretary of Hangzhou, the provincial capital of Zhejiang province.

Huang became an alternate of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party held in the fall of 2012. In October 2013, he was named deputy head of the Central Publicity Department. In December 2014, he was promoted to executive deputy head, with rank equivalent to that of a minister. The executive deputy head position of the Publicity Department is a powerful one, as it oversees roughly all day-to-day administrative aspects of the department. External observers have called Huang's installation in the position as a means to check the influence of Liu Yunshan, a member of the party's top ruling body the Politburo Standing Committee who is widely believed to be a conservative. Huang was also named chief of the Office of the Central Guidance Commission on Building Spiritual Civilization.

The later years of Huang's career roughly follows in the footsteps of Xi Jinping, who was named the CCP General Secretary in 2012. Huang began working with Xi in Fujian province where Xi served as governor. Later Huang moved to Zhejiang during Xi's term as Party Committee Secretary there. After Xi rose to become party leader, Huang again was transferred from Zhejiang to the party center. Because of Huang's close links with Xi, he is considered a member of the New Zhijiang Army, an informal grouping of Xi's closest associates who were considered destined for higher office. After the 19th Party Congress in October 2017, Huang became head of the Publicity Department, and a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party. Shortly thereafter he also became head of a task force on combating pornography and illegal publications.