He held many positions in his native province of Guangdong, including as Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary of the provincial capital Guangzhou.
He came out of retirement in 1988 to serve as the inaugural CCP Committee Secretary of the newly established province and special economic zone of Hainan.
In Hainan he worked closely with Governor Liang Xiang to implement reformist policies, but they were both dismissed in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre and the fall of the liberal leader Zhao Ziyang.
[2] Xu was chosen likely because he had years of experience in Hainan, while Liang had been the successful leader of the Shenzhen SEZ and was a close ally of Zhao.
[2] When Hainan Province was officially established in April 1988, Xu was appointed Chinese Communist Party Committee Secretary, and Liang the first governor.
[2] However, in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, Liang Xiang was dismissed for being an ally of the fallen liberal leader Zhao Ziyang.
The two new leaders of Hainan not only did not share the vision of their predecessors, they were so antagonistic to each other that they weakened the position of the fledgling province, and the national government's focus of reforms shifted to Shanghai after 1992.