Liu Qibao (Chinese: 刘奇葆; pinyin: Liú Qíbǎo; born January 1953) is a Chinese retired politician. He was a member of the 18th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, a Secretary of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party, as well as the head of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee.^[1] Previously Liu have served as the party chief of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Sichuan province. He also served as one of the vice chairman of 13th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference between 2018 and 2023.

Liu Qibao was born in a village near the banks of the Yangtze River in Susong County, Anhui Province in 1953, the second of four children.^[2] After graduating from high school Liu worked on a farm. Liu joined the Communist Party in December 1971 and next year joined its Communist Youth League (CYL). He attended Anhui Normal University as a "Worker-Peasant-Soldier student" where he was a student of history at the Department of History.^[3]

After graduating in 1974, Liu Qibao was a cadre at the Theoretical Research Office of the Department of Publicity, CPC Anhui Provincial Committee.^[3] Following it, he eventually became secretary to Wan Li, then provincial Party Secretary of Anhui.^[4]

In 1980, Wan Li was transferred to work for the central authorities in Beijing. Liu was sent to work for the CYL Anhui Provincial Committee, where he gained rapid career advancement. He led propaganda and ideology work at the CYL, eventually rising to lead the provincial CYL organization. In February 1984, he became mayor of Suzhou, Anhui,^[3] a city with jurisdiction over some four million people, at only 31 years old. In November 1985, he was transferred to the CYL national organization, where he worked alongside future leaders Liu Yandong, Li Keqiang, and Li Yuanchao. Since then he has been identified by some observers as part of the "tuanpai", or "Youth League faction".

Liu left the Youth League in 1993 to serve as the deputy chief editor of People's Daily,^[3] then he worked under Luo Gan and Wang Zhongyu as deputy Secretary-General of the State Council. Additionally he took on leading roles in the offices for the State Council task force on information technology, and the Central Commission for Spiritual Civilization.

Liu served as the Communist Party chief of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region beginning in 2006 and remained in that office for roughly a year.^[2] He was appointed Sichuan's Communist Party Secretary in December 2007.^[2] He was selected to be the chairman of the Standing Committee of the Sichuan Provincial People's Congress on January 27, 2008.^[2] He served as the chief of the Chinese Communist Party Sichuan Committee, the province's top leader from 2008 to 2012.^[2]

At the 18th Party Congress held in November 2012, Liu was promoted to the 18th Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, and named head of the Propaganda Department of the Central Committee, succeeding Liu Yunshan (no relation), who became a member of the Politburo Standing Committee.

In 2017 Qibao met with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in Athens, Greece.^[5]

At the 19th Party Congress held in October 2017, Liu was unable to secure a Politburo seat even though he had not yet reached the conventional retirement at the age of 68. He held onto a seat on the Central Committee, however.^[6] On March 14, 2018, he was named one of the vice-chairmen of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.^[7]