# Lan Fo'an

Lan Fo'an (Chinese: 蓝佛安; born June 1962) is a Chinese politician who is currently serving as minister and party branch secretary of Finance. He previously served as the Party Secretary of Shanxi.

## Early life

Lan was born in Huidong County, Guangdong, in June 1962. After graduating from Hubei College of Finance and Economics (now Zhongnan University of Economics and Law) in 1985, he was dispatched to the Ministry of Finance.

## Political career

Beginning in November 1988, he served in several posts in the Guangdong Provincial Finance Department, including section member, principal staff member, and director. In March 1999, he was appointed vice mayor of Dongguan, a city in Guangdong, but held the position for only two-and-a-half years. He then moved back to the Guangdong Provincial Finance Department and was appointed its deputy head. In April 2007, he was promoted to party branch secretary of Guangdong Provincial Audit Department, concurrently holding the head position since March 2008. In March 2015, he was appointed as party secretary of Shaoguan, another Guangdong city, making him the top political leader there. He was promoted to vice governor of Guangdong in January 2016.
In March 2017, he was transferred to the neighboring Hainan province, and he was appointed secretary of its Commission for Discipline Inspection, the Party's agency in charge of anti-corruption efforts. He also served as director of the Hainan Provincial Supervisory Commission. He became a member of the Standing Committee of the CCP Hainan Provincial Committee.
He served as a delegate to the 19th CCP National Congress in October 2017. From 2017 to 2022, he was a member of the 19th Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. He was also a member of the 13th National People's Congress from 2018 to 2023. In April 2021, he was transferred to north China's Shanxi province and appointed deputy party secretary. On June 4, he was named acting governor of Shanxi, replacing Lin Wu.
In October 2022, he was elected as a member of the CCP Central Committee at the 20th CCP National Congress. In December 2022, he was appointed secretary of the CCP Committee of Shanxi province. He stepped down from the post on 28 September 2023. On 28 September 2023, he was appointed as the CCP committee secretary of the Ministry of Finance.

### As Finance Minister

On 24 October 2023, he was appointed as the Minister of Finance.
In October 2024, Lan announced that the Chinese government would issue 325 billion USD in special bonds to boost China's economy amidst a sharp property market downturn. In November 8, 2024, China approved a 6 trillion yuan (839 billion USD) plan to assist local governments in refinancing their substantial debt. Lan revealed that local governments' hidden debt was 14.3 trillion yuan (2 trillion USD) by the end of 2023. He noted that 2 trillion yuan will be allocated yearly from 2024 to 2026, with the aim of reducing hidden debt to 2.3 trillion yuan (320.9 billion USD) by 2028. The limit for issuing special bonds will increase to 35.52 trillion yuan (4.96 billion USD). Lan described this measure as a significant change in China’s debt restructuring and assured that the government debt risk is manageable.