Chen Jining

Chen Jining
陈吉宁
Chen in 2019
Communist Party Secretary of Shanghai
Incumbent
Assumed office 28 October 2022
Mayor	Gong Zheng
Preceded by	Li Qiang
Mayor of Beijing
In office 27 May 2017 – 28 October 2022
Party Secretary	Cai Qi
Preceded by	Cai Qi
Succeeded by	Yin Yong
Minister of Environmental Protection
In office 27 February 2015 – 27 June 2017
Premier	Li Keqiang
Preceded by	Zhou Shengxian
Succeeded by	Li Ganjie
President of Tsinghua University
In office 20 February 2012 – 28 January 2015
Preceded by	Gu Binglin
Succeeded by	Qiu Yong
Personal details
Born	(1964-02-04) 4 February 1964 (age 60) Gaizhou, Liaoning, China
Political party	Chinese Communist Party
Spouse	Cathy Hu
Alma mater	Tsinghua University (BE) Brunel University London Imperial College London (PhD)
Occupation	Academic, environmental engineer, ecologist, politician
Scientific career
Fields	Civil engineering
Thesis	Modelling and control of the activated sludge process: towards a systematic framework (1993)
Doctoral advisor	M. B. Beck

Chen Jining (Chinese: 陈吉宁; pinyin: Chén Jíníng; born 4 February 1964) is a Chinese environmental scientist and politician who has been serving as Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary of Shanghai since October 2022. Chen is a member of the 20th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party.

Chen graduated from the Imperial College London with a PhD in environmental systems analysis in 1992. Staying at the Imperial College after his graduation, he completed his postdoctoral studies in 1994 and served as an assistant researcher from 1994 to 1997. In 1998, he returned to his undergraduate alma mater Tsinghua University in Beijing to serve as vice chair of the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering. He then served as the university's vice president from 2006 to 2007, executive vice president from 2007 to 2012, and president from 2012 to 2015.

Joining the Chinese government in 2015, Chen served as Minister of Environmental Protection of China from 2015 to 2017, Vice Mayor of Beijing from 2017 to 2018, and Mayor of Beijing from 2018 to 2022. In October 2022, he was appointed as the Communist Party Secretary of Shanghai and as a member of the CCP Politburo.

Chen was born and raised in Gaizhou, Yingkou, Liaoning province in Northeast China. His ancestral home is in Lishu County, Siping in neighbouring Jilin province.

Chen started his undergraduate studies at Tsinghua University in 1981. From Tsinghua University, he received a Bachelor of Engineering with a major in civil and environmental engineering in 1986 and a Master of Science in environmental engineering in 1988. Chen traveled to the United Kingdom for graduate studies at Brunel University London in 1988. Chen transferred to Imperial College London in 1989, where he graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy in civil engineering in 1992.^[1][2][3]

After receiving his doctorate, Chen worked at Imperial College London as a postdoctoral researcher from 1992 to 1994 and as an assistant researcher from 1994 to 1998.^[4][5][3]

In March 1998, Chen left England to serve as deputy director of the Department of Environmental Engineering at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He was promoted and served as the department director from 1999 to 2006.^[6]

In February 2006, he was appointed as vice-president of Tsinghua University, a year later, he was promoted to become the Executive Vice-president. He concurrently served as Dean of the Graduate School of Tsinghua University from January 2010 to February 2012, Dean of the Graduate School at Shenzhen, Tsinghua University between January 2010 to July 2011.

In February 2012, Chen was appointed president of Tsinghua University, he remained in that position until January 2015, when he was appointed Minister of Environmental Protection of China.^{[7][8][9]: 47} At the time of his appointment, he was the youngest member of Li Keqiang's cabinet.^[8] In 2015, he was also a member of the judging panel for the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering.

In May 2017, Chen was appointed acting Mayor of Beijing, becoming the 17th person to hold the office since the founding of the People's Republic of China.^[10][11]

Chen was a deputy to the 12th National People's Congress.^[12]

He was awarded the Silver Olympic Order after the 2022 Winter Olympics.^[13]

Chen became a member of the Politburo after the 20th Party Congress. Later, Chen was transferred to Shanghai and became the party secretary of the city.^[14]