Gu Xiulian

Gu Xiulian (; born December 1936) is a retired Chinese politician who was the first female provincial governor in the People's Republic of China. She served as Governor of Jiangsu from 1983 to 1989, Minister of Chemical Industry from 1989 to 1998, Vice Chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress, and Chairwoman of the All-China Women's Federation.

Early life and education Gu Xiulian was born into a peasant family in Nantong, Jiangsu Province in December 1936. The eldest of five children, she helped her parents with household chores from a young age, and did not go to school until she was nine. She studied at Nantong Girls' Normal School and then Nantong Third High School, and was offered much help from the headmistress and a fellow student, to whom she showed much gratitude after her rise to prominence.

Gu finished junior high school in 1953, during the Korean War. As one of the many young women who were at the time recruited to train as cadres, she enrolled in a police school in Shenyang, northeast China, and became a policewoman in Benxi, Liaoning Province in October 1954. At the same time she also won trophies in basketball and attended night school to earn a high school diploma. She joined the Chinese Communist Party in September 1956. She entered Benxi Iron and Steel College in 1958, and then transferred to Shenyang College of Metallurgy and Mechanics.

In 1982, Gu was transferred to her home province of Jiangsu to serve as CCP Committee Secretary (the party chief was then called "first secretary") in charge of economy. The following year, she was elected Governor of Jiangsu by the Provincial People's Congress, making her the first female provincial governor in the history of the People's Republic of China. During her tenure, she focused her efforts on improving agricultural yields in the poorer northern Jiangsu, while encouraged the development of "village and township enterprises" in the south, taking advantage of its proximity to the major industrial center of Shanghai. The small scale enterprises helped lift peasants out of poverty and were hailed as a model for all of China. She also oversaw the development of large-scale industrial facilities such as Yizheng Chemical Fibre and Qixiashan Chemical Fertilizer Plant.

Gu was Vice Chairwoman of the All-China Women's Federation from 1998 to 2003, and Chairwoman from 2003 to 2008. She also concurrently served as a Vice Chair of the Standing Committee of the 10th National People's Congress from 2003 to 2008. 。

Family Gu Xiulian's husband is said to be a mathematician working for China's Institute of Atomic Energy Research. They have two sons, probably born in the 1970s.