From April 2007 to March 2013, he was
Minister of Land and Resources and the party chief of the Ministry. He is also the general supervisor of national land. According to
The Age in January 2010 Xu Shaoshi lead a high-level delegation to the
Antarctic, aboard China's
icebreaking research vessel,
Xue Long. Xu toured
Australia's
Casey Station before proceeding to China's
Antarctic Zhongshan Station. Among the officials who accompanied him was
Qu Tanzhou, the director of the
Chinese Arctic and Antarctic Administration.
Jo Chandler, writing in
The Age, reported that Xu declined to be interviewed and the presence of his delegation was not covered in the Chinese Press. Chandler reported that the purpose of the tour was to familiarize Xu and his colleagues with China's research efforts in the Antarctic, and the potential mineral resources that could be exploited there. She noted that China, like all other parties to the International treaties to the Antarctic, was barred from
resource exploitation until 2048. He was a member of the
17th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and later became a member of the
18th Central Committee. At the first plenary session of the
12th National People's Congress in March 2013, Xu Shaoshi was elected as
Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, succeeding
Zhang Ping. ==References==