He has published many articles in newspapers and journals, held a professorship at his alma mater Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and twice won China's Sun Yefang Economics Prize.

After graduating from Huazhong University of Science and Technology of Wuhan in 1980, he worked as a reporter for the People's Daily for three years.

He then went back to school, obtaining a master's degree in engineering from the Machinery Industry Automation Research Institute in 1986.

[3] In October 2006 Xie Fuzhan was appointed commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), replacing Qiu Xiaohua who had been fired for corruption.

His major research areas include macroeconomic policies, economic development, and enterprise reform.