Liu Yunshan

Liu Yunshan (born July 1947) is a retired Chinese politician.

He joined the Communist Party in 1971.

He initially worked as a teacher, then was "sent down" to do manual labour in the countryside as part of the Cultural Revolution.

He attended college part-time at the Teachers College in Jining District, Ulanqab City, Inner Mongolia.

He then worked in the local government's public relation department of Tumed Qi.

He started working as a reporter for Xinhua News Agency in 1975, writing stories about farmers' nomadic lifestyle in Inner Mongolia and occasionally sleeping in yurts to get close to the people that were part of his story.

He was eventually promoted to a supervisory role.

He then worked for the provincial Communist Youth League organization.

In 1985, the 38-year old Liu earned an alternate seat on the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

In 1986, Liu became the Inner Mongolia State Government's director of public relation in 1986, and by 1987, the Secretary-General of the Inner Mongolia Party committee, a position in charge of coordination the execution of political policies.

Between 1989 and 1992, Liu attended the Central Party School to take courses in public administration.

In 1991, he became Party Secretary of the eastern Inner Mongolian city of Chifeng while also holding a seat on the Autonomous Region's Party Standing Committee, making him one of the most powerful officials in Inner Mongolia at the time.

Between 1993 and 2002, he worked in Beijing as the deputy head of the Central Public Relation Department as a deputy to Ding Guangen.

Between 2002 and 2012, Liu served as the head of the Central Propaganda Department.

Liu, generally perceived by observers to be a conservative and orthodox Communist, oversaw the gradual tightening of internet controls in China during his tenure, as well as an overall reduction in free discourse and civil society.

In 2002, at the 16th Party Congress, Liu became the head of the Central Propaganda Department.

Although he also gained a seat on the Politburo at the same time, the overall direction of ideology and propaganda work was 'supervised' by Standing Committee member Li Changchun; thus Liu was, for all intents and purposes, not the top propaganda official in China at the time.

Liu also became a Secretary of the Secretariat.

He was a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the top decision-making body of the CCP, between 2012 and 2017; he was broadly tasked with the work of the party's secretariat, overseeing propaganda and ideological indoctrination, as well as party organization, in addition to serving as President of the Central Party School.

Liu built his career in Inner Mongolia, working initially as a teacher, then a Xinhua reporter, before entering the Communist Youth League and the Inner Mongolia party propaganda department.

He had a short stint working as the Party Secretary of the city of Chifeng, in Inner Mongolia.

After the 18th Party Congress in November 2012, Liu was elected to both the 18th Politburo and its Standing Committee.

Liu accumulated a number of high-level positions in addition to his role of overseeing propaganda, including the First Secretary of the Secretariat, which was formerly held by Xi Jinping, who became General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, i.e., party leader.

Liu, considered a censorship hard-liner, was seen as a staunchly conservative member of the Standing Committee who religiously upheld party orthodoxy.

Previously, the top position of the Secretariat and the leading post for propaganda were held by separate people.

Several theories had been proposed for Liu's elevation to the Standing Committee.

His two-term tenure was often cited as a primary factor.

China analyst Cheng Li said that Liu was elevated due to the patronage of former leader Jiang Zemin.

Others suggest that Liu was a balancing force in that he had both Communist Youth League experience and loyally upheld party orthodoxy as a conservative.

That Liu Yunshan effectively succeeded in the portfolios held by two individuals prior to the Congress was arguably an indication of the breadth of his power.

However, unlike his predecessors Xi Jinping and Zeng Qinghong, Liu did not take on the office of Vice President as was customary for the two previous first-ranked Secretaries of the Secretariat, which went to Li Yuanchao.

In 2013, Liu was named one of three deputy leaders of the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reforms.

During the Xi Jinping Administration's crackdown on corruption, which began in 2013, Liu acted as the top official attending the leadership transition meeting in the aftermath of the political 'earthquake' in Shanxi province which saw the removal of a large number of top provincial leaders.

That a Standing Committee member attended the 'transition meeting' was regarded as extremely unusual, as generally the central authorities in Beijing would dispatch the head of the Organization Department to such an event.

He retired in 2017.

Liu was born to an ordinary family of farmers in Tumed Qi in Inner Mongolia; he traces his ancestry to Xinzhou, Shanxi province.

He spent over twenty years of his career in Inner Mongolia.

He was also a member of the 17th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party.

During the global financial crisis, Liu touted the Chinese success in responding to the crisis in contrast to Western political gridlock and stated, "Chinese-style socialism has exhibited nonpareil superiority and the China model has demonstrated strong vigor and energy."

Following the 18th Party Congress, Liu also emerged as the main official in charge of party organization and personnel, as well as the leading official in charge of propagating the so-called "mass line" education in the party as well as "party building".