Shi Zongyuan was elected secretary of the Guizhou Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Saturday.

Shi, born in July 1946, was elected to the post at the first plenary session of the 10th CPC Guizhou Provincial Committee held in Guiyang, capital of the southwestern province Guizhou.

Shi, of the Hui ethnic group, is a native of Baoding, in north China's Hebei Province, and he joined the CPC in 1979. He graduated from the Northwest Institute for Nationalities in 1968.

He is now a member of the 16th CPC Central Committee and has served as secretary of the CPC Guizhou Provincial Committee since Dec. 2005.

(Xinhua News Agency April 29, 2007)