[1][3] Xu was born in Suizhong County, Fengtian, in January 1928, during the Republic of China.
Xu got involved in politics in 1949, when he became a secretary in the Office of CCP Fuzhou Prefectural Party Committee.
In 1975, he was made head of China's agricultural technology support team for Senegal, but having held the position for only two years.
In October 1977, he rose to become party secretary of Fuzhou and in April 1979 was appointed deputy secretary-general of the CCP Jiangxi Provincial Committee and director of the Provincial Foreign Affairs Office.
[1] In December, he was appointed vice governor and secretary-general of Jiangxi and was admitted to member of the standing committee of the CCP Jiangxi Provincial Committee, the province's top authority.