Zhu Xiaodan, chief of the Provincial Publicity Department of Guangdong Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has been named the new party secretary of Guangzhou, the Guangzhou Daily reported Thursday.

Zhu, 53, has extensive experience in the Communist Youth League (CYL).

Born in January 1953 in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, Zhu was sent to the Guangdong Musical Instrument Factory in Guangzhou in 1971 at 18, to lead the factory-based Youth League Committee.

Zhu joined the CPC in December 1975. In 1977 he was named head of the general office of the youth league's Guangzhou arm. He was promoted to deputy secretary of the city's CYL in 1982 and became secretary two years later.

Between 1984 and 1987, Zhu was vice chairman of the Guangdong Youth Federation and chairman of the Guangzhou Youth Federation.

Zhu served as Party secretary of Conghua County in Guangdong from 1987 to 1990 and was sent to the Central Party School for training in 1990. In late 1991, he was promoted to head Guangzhou's publicity bureau and in 1996 was appointed the city's deputy Party secretary while working on a master's degree in economic management at the Central Party School.

He was chief of the United Front Work Department in Guangdong and a vice chairman of the Guangdong People's Political Consultative Conference from 2002 to 2003.

Two years ago, Zhu became the new chief of Guangdong's publicity department and a member of the standing committee of the provincial committee of the CPC.

(Shenzhen Daily July 28, 2006)