In 1994 after coming back from the United States, he became the general secretary of the Communist Youth League organization of the newly established Shanghai University.

At 38, he was appointed as the deputy party chief of Shigatse in Tibet, one of the most remote cities of China, on the border with Nepal and Bhutan.

[1] After coming back from Tibet, he was appointed as the governor of Zhabei District in July 2004, and then the deputy secretary-general of the Shanghai government in May 2008.

In Henan, many tough and controversial measures were taken, such as using muck trucks and trenches to blockade the road with Hubei which was the centre of the pandemic, and putting up radical slogans such as "If you come back home while being infected with Covid-19, then you are a shameful descendent to your family".

[5] Such measures were popular among Chinese netizens on Weibo, and Geng Hong was praised as the "provincial governor you should steal from others".