BEIJING, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Thongloun Sisoulith, general secretary of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party (LPRP) Central Committee and Lao president, will pay a state visit to China from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1 at the invitation of Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and Chinese president.
Sisoulith was born in Houaphanh province in northern Laos in 1945. He went to the Soviet Union twice to study abroad and received a master of arts and a doctor of philosophy in history.
From 1985 to 1997, he successively served as director of the Public Research Department of the Prime Minister's Office, vice minister of foreign affairs, and minister of labor and social welfare.
From 1997 to 2016, Sisoulith successively served as a member of the Standing Committee of the Lao National Assembly, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, deputy prime minister and president of the Committee for Planning, deputy prime minister and head of the LPRP Central Committee's commission for external relations, and minister of foreign affairs.
From 2016 to 2021, Sisoulith became the prime minister of the government. In March 2021, he was elected president of the country at the first meeting of the Ninth Lao National Assembly.
Sisoulith is a member of the Fourth to Eleventh Central Committee of the LPRP and a member of the Seventh to Eleventh Politburo of the Central Committee of the LPRP. In January 2021, he was elected as general secretary of the Central Committee at the Eleventh National Congress of the LPRP. ■