Previously, she was the head of the United Front Work Department of Sichuan, and a member of its provincial party standing committee, and before that, Communist Party Secretary of Qinhuangdao, a city in Hebei, and the head of the propaganda department of Hebei province.
She took on local administrative positions in the provincial capital Shijiazhuang before becoming involved with the Communist Youth League organization in the province, serving successively as the Youth League leader in Shijiazhuang, then Hebei province.
[citation needed] In 2003 Tian took on her first major political role as Chinese Communist Party Deputy Committee Secretary of Tangshan (full department-level rank); she then obtained a graduate degree in management from Tianjin University.
In March 2011 she was selected as the chief supervisor of the elections of the top officers of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
[citation needed] In December 2017, in her first transfer outside of her home province, she was named head of the United Front Work Department of Sichuan.