Li Xiaopeng

Li Xiaopeng (; born 7 June 1959) is a Chinese businessman and politician, who is serving as the Minister of Transport. He is the former chief executive of China Huaneng Group, a power generation company. He was also Governor of Shanxi between 2012 and 2016. As the son of former Chinese Premier Li Peng, he is a prominent member of the faction known in Chinese politics as the princelings. Early life and career On 7 June 1959, Li was born at the Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Dong Cheng District, Beijing, the eldest son from three children of Li Peng, an electrical engineer, and Zhu Lin, a Russian-language translator. Li is the eldest child of his parents. His sister, Li Xiaolin, was born two years later. Both children were named after their parents by simply appending the middle character xiao to their names (literally meaning "little"), so Li Xiaopeng's name can be taken to mean "little Li Peng" or "Li Peng, Jr.". Both Li Xiaopeng and Li Xiaolin took after their father and studied electricity-related professions in university. He is a graduate of the North China Electric Power University. In 1982, Li found work at the country's top institute specializing in the study of power generation. He was rapidly promoted in the institute and earned his professional engineer designation. He studied for a brief stint at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In 1991, Li entered a company specializing in power generation, and became assistant to its chief executive, beginning his career in business. He took up increasingly senior executive positions. In April 1999, Li Xiaopeng was named chief executive of China Huaneng Group. He took the company to its IPO on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange a year later. After some mergers and acquisitions, China Huaneng emerged as one of the largest power generation companies in Asia. Li Xiaopeng was nicknamed the "Asian King of Power". In 2002, Li was named chief executive of Huaneng Power International. Huaneng consistently ranked first in the "big five" state-owned power generation companies in China in terms of generation capacity.