Sun Qizhen

    

His Excellency Sun Qizhen
孫啟真
Premier of the Republic of China
In office 20 June 2020 – 3 February 2021
President	Zhao Meijin
Preceded by	Zhao Meijin
Succeeded by	Lin Renjian
Personal details
Born	(1958-06-18) June 18, 1958 Hong Kong
Nationality	China United Kingdom (until 2006)
Political party	Kuomintang
Education	University of Hong Kong London School of Economics
Profession	Banker

Sun Qizhen (Chinese: 孫啟真; born 18 June 1958) is a Chinese banker and politician who was the Premier of the Republic of China from June 2020 until February 2021. He held senior positions in several major banks in Hong Kong and mainland China prior to that. Sun was the chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China from 2011 to 2017, a multinational Chinese banking company that became the largest commercial bank in the world during his tenure.

He is a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party. As Premier, Sun was considered to be responsible for China's quick economic recovery in the second half of 2020 after the COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020, encouraging the reopening of the economy despite the pandemic. Regardless, the party took a hit to its popularity because of lockdowns and other restrictive policies implement in the initial response to the pandemic, as well as the government's secrecy and overall handling of the event, leading to its defeat in the 2021 Chinese legislative election. He stepped down as Premier after the election and was succeeded by Lin Renjian.

Early life and education

Born in 1958 in British Hong Kong, Sun Qizhen began his career as an apprentice at a small Hong Kong bank in 1973. By the time he was in his early twenties he was managing some of the foreign dealings of the business. After pursuing education in both Hong Kong and the United Kingdom, he joined the marketing and planning division of the Bank of East Asia in 1986.

Banking career

Sun eventually became one of the highest executives in the Bank of East Asia and later rose to oversee the creation of the Bank of China (Hong Kong) in 1995 through the merger of several other smaller banks. In 1997 he became the CEO of BOC Hong Kong, which grew to become the second-largest bank in Hong Kong. One of the controversies of his tenure was that he was suspected of working with financial institutions of the People's Republic of China to influence the Hong Kong financial sector favorably to China and thereby increase Chinese influence in the British territory. It was known that he had dealings with banks in mainland China at the time. His annual salary of up to HKD 26 million – exceptional in Hong Kong – was also a topic of controversy. Sun pursued an aggressive growth strategy and acquired additional banks, becoming one of the most powerful men in the Hong Kong financial industry.

Following the Revolutions of 2000 events and the fall of communism in China, in 2001 he stepped down from his position at BOC Hong Kong and joined the Bank of China in the mainland, one of the largest commercial banks in China. Sun oversaw its foreign operations from 2001 to 2005 and became the head of the Bank of China from 2005 to 2009. His time at the Bank of China in the 2000s coincided with the re-opening of China to the world after the fall of communism and the massive economic growth that came with it. In that role Sun was influential in helping develop China's financial sector and increase its ties to international banking. He later started working for the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, becoming its chairman in 2011. He held that position until 2017 and during his time as its chairman the bank became the largest in the world.

Political activities

Sun Qizhen was a supporter of the 1999–2000 Beijing Spring revolution that toppled the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship in China, and became a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in 2003. He is also a close acquaintance of Chinese President Ren Longyun and is considered to be part of the "Ren family." Sun helped fund the first reelection campaign of President Ren the 2004 election and subsequent re-election campaigns, as well as helping the Kuomintang during its elections to the Legislative Yuan. Sun has been accused of obtaining his high ranking positions in various Chinese banks and personally profiting from acquiring former state-owned assets in part with the help of the president.

He has worked in an advisory role to the National Development and Reform Commission of the Republic of China, a macroeconomic planning agency that oversees China's economic development, since the early 2000s. It regulates trade and laws related to facilitating economic growth, and has broad powers over planning and control of the Chinese economy, as part of China's transition from the Communist economy to a more "market socialist" economy. During the early 2000s he was a member of the President's economic reform team, which included figures like Qin Junyi, Wu Kaiping, and Han Zhanshu. In that capacity Sun advised the government against privatizing major industries or even most of the economy, and maintained strict controls over much of the economy even as China's international trade increased. Within the government he was regarded as an experienced technocrat. After stepping down from the ICBC in 2017, he increased his work with the Chinese government.

Premiership

Main article: Sun Qizhen's Cabinet

He was considered by the Chinese media to be the leading candidate for the post of Premier of the Republic of China, the country's head of government, in the run up to the 2020 presidential election. Some analysts and former officials concluded that Sun Qizhen—as a financier and a long time government advisor—would head a technocratic government aimed at managing the Chinese economy at a time when geopolitical tensions between China and Anglo-American countries led to a trade war and a slow down in economic growth in China. After Zhao Meijin, the candidate endorsed by former president Ren Longyun and the Nationalist Party, won the election and was inaugurated in June 2020, he appointed Sun as Premier and asked him to form the next Executive Yuan.

As Premier, in the second half of 2020 he was in charge of the government's coronavirus emergency task force, handling the potential reemergence of COVID-19 pandemic in China after the spread of the virus slowed down around the summer of 2020 since it began in October–December 2019. Despite the economic downturn in the first half of 2020 because of the pandemic, during the second half the country rebounded and had regained most of the GDP and trade it had lost in the first half, and Sun Qizhen's government signed a new trade deal between China and the European Community in December 2020. Overall, the public and the Chinese media perception is the Sun was a competent head of government who allowed China to recover quickly from the pandemic, with his personal approval rating remaining between 60% and 70%. Because he came into office in the middle of the year, Sun's reputation was untainted by the decisions in the start of the year to implement the unpopular coronavirus lockdowns and other restrictive measures. The rest of his party did take a hit in the polls because of that.

The KMT and other 'establishment' parties failed to gain a majority of seats in the country's parliament in a historic defeat during the 2021 Chinese legislative election, losing their majority for the first time since 2001. Accordingly, in early February 2021 Sun Qizhen stepped down from the office of Premier after the new ruling DPP–DPS–GP coalition came to an agreement on establishing a new government. On February 3, Lin Renjian of the DPS was voted as the new Premier by the Legislative Yuan, formally making him Premier of the ROC.

Personal life

Originally a British citizen, he became a citizen of China in 2001 and renounced his British citizenship in 2006.