After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in English literature from the Beijing Second Foreign Language University, Xiao began working as a translator and eventually got into business, which gave him the opportunity to travel to Canada.

In Canada, Xiao was a successful entrepreneur before entering public life, working in consulting, international trade, publishing, commercial real estate and marketing.

In that election, Xiao defeated first-term Liberal incumbent Mo Elsalhy by 1226 votes[1] to win the riding.

On October 10, 2014, Xiao was disqualified by the Conservative Party of Canada from running for its nomination for the 2015 federal election in Edmonton West.

Xiao claimed most of the expenses were for travel to Calgary and other neighbouring cities as he was the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Transportation.