In 2005, Xu was assigned as counsellor at the Embassy of China in London, United Kingdom, a position he served until 2007.

During his tenure as ambassador, he oversaw of the re-opening of the Chinese state-run Confucius Institute in Kabul in 2013, since its closure in 2010.

In 2013, his tenure as ambassador to Afghanistan ended and he was appointed as the deputy director-general of the Cadre Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

[1][3][4] In 2018, he was appointed as director of the Service Center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Overseas Missions and in 2021, he was appointed as assistant foreign minister for administrative and financial affairs, serving this position till December 2023.

[11] During his tenure as ambassador, India and China reached an agreement to de-escalate tensions at the Line of Actual Control between the two countries in October 2024 with militaries of both countries completing disengagement of troops at friction points at the line.