The minister of commerce of the People's Republic of China is the head of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China and a member of the State Council. Within the State Council, the position is twentieth in order of precedence. The minister is responsible for leading the ministry, presiding over its meetings, and signing important documents related to the ministry. Officially, the minister is nominated by the premier of the State Council, who is then approved by the National People's Congress or its Standing Committee and appointed by the president.
The current minister is Wang Wentao, who concurrently serves as the Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary of the ministry.
List of ministers NameTook officeLeft officeMinister of TradeYe JizhuangOctober 1949August 1952Minister of Foreign TradeYe JizhuangAugust 1952June 1967 Lin HaiyunJune 1967July 1970Bai XiangguoJuly 1970October 1973Li QiangOctober 1973September 1981Zheng TuobinSeptember 1981March 1982Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and TradeChen MuhuaMarch 1982March 1985Zheng TuobinMarch 1985December 1990Li LanqingDecember 1990March 1993Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operationWu YiMarch 1993March 1998Shi GuangshengMarch 1998March 2003Minister of CommerceLü Fuyuan17 March 200329 February 2004Bo Xilai29 February 200429 December 2007Chen Deming29 December 200716 March 2013Gao Hucheng16 March 201324 February 2017Zhong Shan24 February 201726 December 2020Wang Wentao26 December 2020Incumbent
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