Sun Dahai

Sun Dahai (Chinese: 孙大海; born June 1963) is a Chinese politician and academic who currently serves as vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Hainan Provincial People's Congress. He previously held several key positions in Tianjin and Hainan, including secretary-general of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and head of the General Office of the Hainan Provincial Committee.^[1][2]

Sun was born in Xiangyang, Hubei Province, in June 1963. He studied chemistry at Sun Yat-sen University from 1979 to 1983 and obtained a master's degree in analytical chemistry there in 1986. After joining the Chinese Communist Party in June 1986, he began his career in July the same year as a lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at Huazhong Institute of Technology (now Huazhong University of Science and Technology). He later pursued doctoral studies in analytical chemistry at Sun Yat-sen University, completing his Ph.D. in 1990.^[3]

Following his doctoral studies, Sun remained at Sun Yat-sen University as a lecturer and then as an associate professor. During this period, he briefly served as assistant to the director of the Guangning Glucose Factory in Guangdong Province (1990–1991) and was promoted to associate professor in 1992. Between 1994 and 1997, he conducted postdoctoral research at Indiana University and served as a visiting researcher at the University of Missouri. In 1997, Sun returned to China and joined Xiamen University, where he served as deputy director of the Division of Analytical Chemistry and deputy director of the Ministry of Education’s Open Laboratory for Analytical Science. He was promoted to full professor in 1998 and became a senior visiting scholar at the University of Sheffield in 1999.^[4]

Sun entered public administration in 2000 as assistant director of the Xiamen Torch High-tech Industrial Development Zone Administrative Committee, later serving as deputy director and Party committee member. From 2007, he concurrently served as deputy secretary of the Torch High-tech Zone Working Committee and deputy director of the Xiamen Municipal People’s Congress Foreign Affairs Committee. In 2010, he was transferred to Tianjin to serve as deputy director of the Binhai High-tech Industrial Development Zone, where he later became a Party committee member and deputy director of the Management Committee.^[5][6]

In 2013, Sun was appointed Party secretary of the Tianjin International Joint Academy of Biomedicine. He subsequently served as member and standing committee member of the Binhai New Area Party Committee and head of its Publicity Department. From 2017 to 2018, he was executive vice president of the Tianjin Party School and Tianjin Administrative College.^[7]

In July 2018, Sun was transferred to Hainan Province, where he served as deputy secretary-general of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and later as executive deputy director of the offices for deepening reform and free trade port development.^[8] From January 2020 to early 2022, he served as member of the Standing Committee of the Hainan Provincial Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, secretary-general of the committee, and director of the General Office, concurrently leading the provincial reform and free trade port offices.^[9] In January 2023, Sun was elected vice chairman of the Standing Committee of the Hainan Provincial People’s Congress.^[10]

As a scholar, Sun participated in more than ten major research projects, including the national “863” high-tech program on marine science. He has received numerous awards for his academic and administrative achievements.^[9] In 2003, he received the “Outstanding Achievement Award for Returned Overseas Scholars” jointly granted by six Chinese ministries and was named an “Advanced Individual in the National Torch Program.” He also received the “China Youth Science and Technology Innovation Award” the same year and was recognized as a top talent in Xiamen. In 2005 and again in 2008, the Ministry of Science and Technology honored him as an “Outstanding Contributor to the Torch Program.”^[11]