Raoguo Jixu

Ráoguò Jixu (': ㄖㄠㄍㄨㄛ ㄐㄧㄒㄩ'''; born 5th April 1950, aged 66) is a Manchurian politician and economist. He served as the founder and leader of the Progressive Millennium Party from 1994 to 2001, and as the New Progressive Party's premierial candidate in the 2014 premierial election. From 1990 to 1994 Raoguo was the Secretary of Development in the first Popular Front government of Du Changhao. He currently serves on the National Party Council of the NPP, being re-elected to the Zuigaohuiyi in 2015.

Raoguo was born in the city of in 1950. He studied at before serving as an economic's professor serving as an informal economic advisor to the local Dalian Municipal Council led by party secretary Du Changhao. During the Orchid Revolution he joined the Popular Front for Democracy and Revolution as a member of the Minzhudang supporting students and pro-democracy protesters, actively encouraging his own economic students to join the protests. Following the 1990 premierial election Raoguo was appointed by Du to serve as his Secretary of Development and was part of his Policy Formulation Unit (ZZD) commonly nicknamed the Dalian Clique. However Du's economic reforms and the social damage associated with them resulted in Raoguo to resign from the government and alongside with several rebel Zuigaohuiyi members form the Progressive (later Progressive Millennium) Party in September 1994. The PMP would later go on to split the vote between the PMP and the Minzhudang in the 1995 Zuigaohuiyi election which did see the PMO nonetheless emerge as the third largest party behind the Manzuxiehui and the Socialist Party of Manchuria.

In the 1996 premierial election Raoguo ran for the position of Premier as the PMP's candidate, where he emphasised and  policies. Raoguo came fourth in the election with 24.2% of the vote although he was only 178,297 votes behind the winner Du Changhao. He was placed under house arrest and later sent to prison when Du temporarily suspended the constitution during the existence of the Supreme Revolutionary Council, with Raoguo recognised internationally as one of the most prominent critics of Du authoritarianism. In 2000 Raoguo once again led the PMP although their total seat count fell in the election that year. In 2001 Raoguo retired from the position as party leader and subsequently pursued several business interests. He announced a return to politics in 2010 when he joined the New Progressive Party and gained a seat in the Zuigaohuiyi in the 2010 elections.

In 2013 Raoguo announced he would be running for the NNP's candidacy for Premier for the upcoming 2014 election. His main opponent was former NPP President Yu Zhenggao who ran a campaign compared to Raoguo's. Raoguo won the NPP's nomination and went on to face Manzuxiehui candidate Liu Zhou and SPM First Secretary Chang Shengzuo in the election itself where he gained 26,149,370 (32.3% of the vote) 4,533,638 less then Liu's 30,683,008 votes (37.9%). In 2015 he ran in his home district of which he won with 51% of the vote, returning to the Zuigaohuiyi for the first time since 2001.