Zhou Xiaochuan is from Yixing, Jiangsu. He is an educated youth, majoring in computer application and system engineering. Later, he, Wu Jinglian, Guo Shuqing, Lou Jiwei and others participated in the research and design of the State Council's economic system reform. Since 199 1, Zhou Xiaochuan has worked in banking, foreign exchange, securities and other financial departments. Since 2002, he has served as the governor of the central bank.
In the second year after Zhou Xiaochuan took charge of the central bank, the China Banking Regulatory Commission was established, which stripped off some of the original regulatory functions of the central bank. At the end of the same year, China used foreign exchange reserves to inject capital into state-owned commercial banks. In 2004, China announced the launch of the shareholding system reform of state-owned commercial banks, with China Bank and China Construction Bank as the first batch of pilots. By 20 10, the Agricultural Bank of China was listed in the Mainland and Hongkong, and all four state-owned commercial banks were successfully restructured and listed.
Another contribution of Zhou Xiaochuan is to promote the reform of RMB exchange rate. Therefore, he is called "Mr. Renminbi". In July 2005, the central bank reformed the RMB exchange rate formation mechanism. Since then, the RMB is no longer pegged to the single dollar, and the trading floating range has gradually expanded.