She previously served as the Chairwoman (Governor) of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region from July 2016 to May 2022.
In 2016, along with Bu Xiaolin of Inner Mongolia and Shen Yiqin of Guizhou, Xian Hui was one of only three women to hold a provincial government leadership position in China.
Between 1978 and 1981, she joined one of the first batches of students to be admitted to post-secondary education following the Cultural Revolution and took up studies in Chinese literature at the Minzu University of China.
After university, she returned to her home province, and began working in the provincial United Front Work Department, where she would rise steadily through its career ladder and serve until 2005, eventually rising to head the old cadres bureau and the deputy head of the Gansu United Front Department.
[2] In 2003, Xian was appointed deputy head of the Chinese Communist Party's Organization Department of Gansu.