Hu Dunfu Hu Dunfu Hu Dunfu (; 1886 – December 1, 1978) was a Chinese mathematician and pioneer in higher education. He won a Qing government scholarship to study at Cornell University, and became the first dean of Tsinghua University at the age of 25. He was then briefly dean of Fudan University, before establishing Utopia University in 1912 and developing it into one of China's best private universities. He also served as head of the mathematics department of National Chiao Tung University and the first president of the Chinese Mathematical Society, which he co-founded in 1935. Hu Dunfu was born in
Hu Chunhua leadership. He toed the party line and is seen as a close confidant and loyalist of Hu Jintao. After Xi Jinping assumed leadership of the Communist Party, Hu continued to play a prominent role politically - his record in Guangdong was praised by the central authorities and by Xi personally. There was wide speculation that Hu would advance directly to the Politburo Standing Committee in 2017 and be groomed as a putative successor to the top leadership, but this ultimately did not occur. However, Hu was selected to become Vice-Premier in 2018, continuing to be the youngest leader among the