Wei Liucheng, former governor of south China's Hainan Province, was elected secretary of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on Sunday.

Wei, 61, was elected to the post at the first plenary session of the 5th CPC Hainan Provincial Committee held in Haikou, capital of the south island province.

Wei joined the CPC in 1973 after graduating from the Beijing Petroleum College (now China University of Petroleum) and then spent more than 30 years working in the petroleum industry. He was appointed general manager and Party secretary of the China National Offshore Oil Corp. in 1998.

A native of Biyang County in central China's Henan Province, Wei has worked his way up in politics since 2002 when he was elected alternate member of the 16th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. He moved to Hainan in October 2003 and became the governor in February 2004.

(Xinhua News Agency April 30, 2007)