Li Chenggang Photo: Screenshot of china.com.cn

China's State Council, the cabinet, announced on Sunday the appointment of Li Chenggang as the country's international trade representative at the ministerial level, according to the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. Li also serves as a vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). 

Li, a veteran trade negotiator, previously served as the MOFCOM's international trade representative at the ministerial level, a position to which he was appointed in April 2025.

According to the MOFCOM's website, Li was born in February 1967 in Taihu, East China's Anhui Province. He began his career in August 1989 and joined the Communist Party of China in December 1988.

He holds a bachelor's degree in law from Peking University and a master's degree in law and economics from the University of Hamburg in Germany.

Li previously held a number of positions in the former Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation and the MOFCOM, including roles related to treaties and law, anti-dumping investigations and fair trade. He served as deputy director-general of the MOFCOM's Bureau of Fair Trade for Imports and Exports and deputy director-general of its Department of Treaty and Law from January 2004. He became director-general of the Department of Treaty and Law in November 2010, and he was appointed assistant minister of commerce and a member of the CPC Leadership Group of the Ministry of Commerce in December 2016.

Global Times