(Bloomberg) -- China appointed the first female deputy chief of the central bank in nine years, a hire that stands out in President Xi Jinping’s male-dominated administration. 

Tao Ling, 52, a longtime central banker and financial regulator, took up her post as deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China on Wednesday. She’s the first woman to hold the position since Hu Xiaolian, who left the central bank in February 2015 to head the Export-Import Bank of China. 

Tao’s ascent marks her out as a rarity in China’s government. As Xi advocates for a more traditional and domestic role for women, gender equality is regressing among the upper echelons of the ruling Communist Party, which touts its egalitarian ideals. Women were excluded from the powerful 24-member Politburo for the first time in 25 years during a major reshuffle in 2022. 

“Tao Ling is an appointment which breaks the gender bias of the PBOC,” said Alicia Garcia Herrero, chief Asia Pacific economist at Natixis SA in Hong Kong. 

Her promotion comes ahead of an expected visit to China next month by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who highlighted the importance of diversity in government leadership last time she was here. Yellen took time to dine with a group of Chinese female economists and entrepreneurs in Beijing in 2023.

Tao is known for her work on financial risk and regulations. Before her appointment to the PBOC, she was the director of the office of the Financial Stability and Development Committee under the State Council, a high-level government body that coordinated financial regulation until it was dissolved into a new Communist Party agency. 

Before that, she was a deputy head of the PBOC’s financial stability bureau, where in 2018 she helped overhaul regulation of the $16 trillion asset management industry — part of a government effort to crack down on financial risks and contain growth in shadow banking. 

Previous female deputies of the PBOC include Hu, whose background was in foreign exchange, and Wu Xiaoling, who worked her way up through several departments at the central bank. The bank’s only female governor was Chen Muhua, who held the job between 1985 and 1988.

Other women leaders in Xi’s current government include State Councilor Shen Yiqin, Justice Minister He Rong and Minister of Human Resources and Social Security Wang Xiaoping. 

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.