Xu was born in
Shanghai, on 16 December 1942. After graduating from
Beijing Forestry University in 1963, he was assigned to the , where he successively served as research intern, teacher, assistant researcher, researcher, and director of its Resource Information Institute. and returned to China in 1981. He joined the
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in September 1984. He was appointed director of the Institute of Remote Sensing Applications,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, in February 1993, and was elevated to vice president in August 1994. Xu got involved in politics in 1995, when he was chosen as deputy director of the National Technical Committee. After the institutional reform, he served as the
vice minister of science and technology in 1998. He moved up the ranks to become minister on 28 February 2001. In March 2008, he took office as chairperson of the
Education, Science, Health and Sports Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, serving in the post until his retirement in March 2013. ==Personal life==