Ma Guoqiang

Ma began working at Baosteel of Shanghai in July 1995, and became director of the Planning and Finance Department in 1999. He became deputy general manager of Baosteel in March 2001 and was promoted to general manager in April 2009.^[1] In July 2013, he was appointed general manager of Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation. He was elevated to its chairman and party secretary in May 2015. When Baosteel and Wuhan Steel merged to form Baowu Steel in October 2016, he was appointed the chairman and party secretary of the new company, China's largest steelmaker.^[2]

Ma was a delegate to the 8th National People's Congress (1993–1998).^[3] He was elected an alternate of the 19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party in 2017.^[1] In March 2018, he was transferred from Baowu to the provincial government of Hubei and appointed deputy party secretary of the province. On 20 July 2018, he received the additional appointment as party secretary of Wuhan, the city's top official.^[1] The position had been vacant for four months since his predecessor Chen Yixin was transferred to the national government.^[1]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Wuhan residents criticized Ma and his subordinate, mayor Zhou Xianwang for their slow response to the epidemic.^[4][5][6] In an interview with China Central Television (CCTV) on 27 January 2020, Zhou admitted that the city government had failed to promptly disclose information about the outbreak and offered to resign, although he added that "it's an infectious disease, and relevant information should be released according to the law. As a local government, we can only disclose information after being authorized."^[7][8][9] When Ma was interviewed by television host Bai Yansong four days later, he expressed his feelings of "regret, guilt and self-blame".^[10]

On February 13, 2020, Ma was removed from his posts as deputy party secretary of Hubei and party secretary of Wuhan.^[11][12] He was succeeded by Wang Zhonglin, Communist Party Secretary of Jinan.^[12][13]

In August 2021, he became a member of the Party Branch Committee of Hubei People's Congress.^[14] On 23 January 2022, he became vice chairman of Hubei People's Congress.^[15]

In October 2022, he became a member of the 19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.^[16]