Ni was born in
Yuexi County,
Anhui, in September 1964. In 1980, he entered
Hefei University of Technology, majoring in industrial automation. After graduation, he taught at the university. He went on to receive his doctor's degree in systems engineering in 1990 at
Tsinghua University. Ni joined the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in March 1985, and got involved in politics in July 1993, when he was assigned to the
Qingdao Municipal People's Government in
east China's
Shandong province. He was transferred to the
State Oceanic Administration in July 1998 and two years later rose to become its deputy head. In March 2003, he joined the
National People's Congress Environment and Resources Protection Committee, where he was prompted to vice chairperson in February 2008. In February 2011, he was transferred to south China's Fujian province and appointed vice governor. He was appointed secretary of Fujian Commission for Discipline Inspection in June 2013 and was admitted to member of the standing committee of the CCP Fujian Provincial Committee, the province's top authority. He concurrently served as party secretary of the capital city
Fuzhou since August 2016. In May 2017, he was promoted to be party branch secretary of the
General Administration of Customs, concurrently holding the head position since March 2018. In April 2022, he was despatched to north China's Hebei province and appointed
party secretary of Hebei, the top political position in the province. In the aftermath of the
2023 China floods caused by
Typhoon Doksuri, Ni commented that his province, and specifically the city of
Zhuozhou, can "serve as a moat for the capital" using
flood storage and detention areas.
Overlapping high-profile case during tenure Since assuming office as Party Secretary of Hebei on 22 April 2022, the case of Canadian entrepreneur
Li Yonghui (李勇会) has remained unresolved. Li, founder of the Hebei-based financial company Fincera, was first detained by police in Shijiazhuang in December 2019. According to 1843 (*The Economist*), Li has remained held for multiple years without trial, and his case has drawn international attention as an example of the uncertain legal environment facing Chinese business executives.
The Globe and Mail reported that Li's family in Canada has appealed to Ottawa to intervene, noting that he has been detained for more than five years without formal trial. ==References==