Previously he had served as governor of Hebei, and before that, mayor, then party chief of Shenzhen, China's most prominent special economic zone.

[citation needed] Xu worked for the next twenty years in the economic planning system, supporting state-run industries related to electrical mechanics.

In 2003, he began overseeing high-tech planning as part of the National Development and Reform Commission.

[2][3] Xu was mayor during the 2015 Shenzhen landslide, an industrial accident later deemed to have been caused by human factors.

On December 31, 2016, after Ma Xingrui was moved to the post of Governor of Guangdong, Xu was named party chief of Shenzhen.