He joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1984, and began his career in 1985. From 2003 to 2006, he served as Vice-Mayor of Nantong City, and as Executive Vice-Mayor from 2006 to 2011. From 2011 to 2012, he served as acting Mayor of Suqian City. From 2012 to 2014, he served as Secretary of the Suqian City Committee of the CCP. He would also serve concurrently from 2012 to 2013 as Mayor of Suqian. From 2014 to 2017, he served as Secretary of the Taizhou City CPC Committee.[1] In 2018, he started to serve as the mayor of Nanjing, following Miao Ruilin’s resignation.[2] He served as CCP Committee Secretary of Suzhou since September 2019[3] for a year before appointed CCP Deputy Committee Secretary of Guizhou in 2020.