Ding was born in Jingjiang, Jiangsu Province, in October 1951. He joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in August 1972 and entered the workforce in May 1976 as deputy section chief of agriculture and water resources and deputy director of the revolutionary committee of Hongguang Commune, Jingjiang County. In 1980, he studied agronomy at Jiangsu Agricultural College before returning to local government work.[1]
In 1983, Ding became Party secretary of Xinqiao Township in Jingjiang County and later deputy Party secretary of the county. By 1986, he was appointed Party secretary of Xinghua County, and in 1989 he also served concurrently as a member of the Standing Committee of the Yangzhou Municipal Party Committee. In 1990, he was named head of the Yangzhou Political and Legal Affairs Commission, and from 1991 to 1993 he was temporarily assigned as deputy Party secretary of Hanzhong, Shaanxi Province.[2]
Returning to Jiangsu in 1993, Ding served as vice mayor of Yangzhou. In 1996, he was transferred to Taizhou as deputy Party secretary, and soon after became mayor and chairman of the municipal Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He continued as mayor of Taizhou until 2001, while also attending training at the Central Party School, where he later completed graduate studies in world economics.[3]
In May 2001, Ding was appointed CCP committee secretary of Huai'an.[4] In January 2003, he concurrently became chairman of the Huai'an Municipal People’s Congress Standing Committee. In January 2008, he was promoted to vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial People’s Congress, while continuing to serve as Huai’an Party secretary and congress chairman until March 2008, when he began to focus on provincial-level duties.[3]
After retiring from frontline politics, Ding was elected president of several poverty alleviation organizations in Jiangsu, including the Jiangsu Poverty Alleviation Foundation and the Jiangsu Association for Poverty Alleviation and Development.[5][6]