He served as Governor of Gansu from 2010 to 2016, and prior to that, Vice-Governor of Qinghai Province and mayor of Nanchang.
He entered the work force in 1968 as a sent-down youth in Nanchang County, Jiangxi province, and in 1970 started working at the Hongdu Machinery Building Factory (now Hongdu Aviation Industry Group) under the then Ministry of Aerospace Industry.
After college he returned to the Hongdu Machinery Building Factory in 1976, working for its design institute.
[1][2][3] In April 2016, Liu was transferred to become the Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (minister-level).
Such a transfer was considered unusual as Liu had not yet reached the mandated retirement age for active provincial-ministerial officials at 65; moreover, Liu was moved from a position of power in government to a deputy academic position, the only such case since the 18th Party Congress, raising the eyebrows of some political observers.