Zhou Qiang was elected Secretary of the Hunan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on November 23, 2011.

Zhou was born in April 1960 in Huangmei county, Central China's Hubei province.

He joined the Party in 1978 and obtained his masters degree at China's Southwest University of Political Science and Law in 1985.

Zhou worked for the Ministry of Justice for ten years before he was elected the secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China in November 1995.

He was elected first secretary of the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China in June 1998 and was re-elected to the post in July 2003.

He was elected governor of Hunan Province in February 2007 at the 5th meeting of the 10th Hunan Provincial People's Congress, the local legislature.

Zhang Chunxian served as the Party Chief of central Hunan Province before Zhou and was appointed as the Party chief of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region in April, 2010.

Related link:

Zhou Qiang elected Party chief of Hunan province

China appoints acting governor of northwest province

Hunan strives to transform economy