The Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security recently announced the appointment of Huang Ru, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Southeast University, as Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission of the Communist Party of China. The use of the words “part-time” in the official appointment notice has attracted attention.
Public records show that Huang Ru, a female of the Hui ethnic group, was born in November 1969 in Nan’an, Fujian, and is a member of the Communist Party of China.
Huang Ru has long been engaged in research in the fields of information technology and artificial intelligence. She has served as a lecturer, associate professor, and professor at the School of Information Science and Technology of Peking University, and was awarded the Bo Ya Endowed Professorship at Peking University in 2016. She has since held positions such as Vice Dean and Dean of the School of Information Science and Technology at Peking University, Director of the Department of Information and Engineering Sciences at Peking University, Dean of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence at Peking University, and Assistant to the President and Vice President of Peking University. In 2015, Huang Ru was elected as an academician of the Department of Information Technology Sciences of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In December 2021, Huang Ru was appointed Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Southeast University. Starting in January 2022, she served as the President of Southeast University (deputy ministerial level).
On January 14, 2025, the Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced the removal of Huang Ru from the position of President of Southeast University. Subsequently, the “Leaders of the Commission” section on the website of the National Development and Reform Commission indicated that Huang Ru had been appointed as a member of the Party Committee of the National Development and Reform Commission (deputy ministerial level), but had not yet taken on the role of Deputy Director.
On February 13, 2026, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security once again announced the appointment of Huang Ru, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Southeast University, as Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission of the Communist Party of China. In addition to her gender and the annotation of “deputy ministerial level,” the words “part-time” were also added in parentheses.
Hong Kong 01 pointed out that it is extremely rare for someone to hold a leadership position in a university while simultaneously serving as a deputy ministerial-level official in a ministry of the Chinese Communist Party in a part-time capacity.
Since the outbreak of the US-China trade war in 2018, the technological competition between the two sides has escalated. In the field of high technology, the United States’ advantage has put pressure on China, forcing the Chinese Communist Party to find ways to circumvent the restrictions imposed by the United States.