Xu Youfang, a native of Guangde, Anhui Province, was born in December 1939. Having received university education, he is an honorary researcher with the Chinese Academy of Sciences. A graduate from the Anhui College of Agricultural Sciences, majored in forestry science, he began to work in August 1963 and joined the Communist Party of China in April 1973.
From August 1963 to October 1973, he worked with the Bajiazi Forestry Bureau of Jilin Province as a technician, planner and a secretary of the administrative office of the bureau抯 CPC committee. From October 1973 to November 1981, he served as engineer and deputy director of the planning division under the Forestry Department of Jilin Province. Between November 1981 and April 1983, he was the executive vice-director and a standing committee member of the CPC Committee of the Lushuihe Forestry Bureau, Jilin Province. Since April 1983, he had served as vice-director of the Jilin Provincial Forestry Department, a member of the department抯 CPC leading group and manager of the Jilin Provincial Forestry Industrial Company until January 1985 when he was promoted to the post of director of the Bureau of Forestry Industry under the Ministry of Forestry. From March 1986 to March 1993, he served as vice-minister of forestry and a member of the ministry's CPC leading group. He was deputy commander-in-chief in the campaign fighting against the forest fire spreading in the Greater Hinggan Mountains in May 1987. Since March 1993, he had served as minister of forestry and secretary of the ministry's CPC leading group until July 1997, and deputy director of the China National Afforestation Commission until 1998. He was appointed head of the coordinating group for desertification control in China in 1994. Between June 1996 and June 1997, he served as vice-chairman of the State Council Environmental Protection Committee and was appointed vice-chairman of the Capital Afforestation Commission in February 1997. Xu took the post of secretary of the CPC Heilongjiang Provincial Committee in July 1997. In April 1998, he was elected secretary of the CPC Heilongjiang Provincial Committee at the first session of the Eighth CPC Heilongjiang Provincial Committee. In February 1999, he was also elected chairman of the Standing Committee of the Ninth Heilongjiang Provincial People's Congress.
Xu is a member of the 15th CPC Central Committee and deputy to the Ninth National People's Congress.
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