China’s new energy tsar spent his 20s farming in remote, harsh mountains, learning hard lessons about rural life that may help him wrangle rogue provincial governments and push through Beijing’s toughest reforms yet.

Shanghai native Chen Deming, 57, faces big challenges: lifting domestic fuel prices by 20-plus percent to match global rates without spurring inflation; filling China’s emergency oil reserves without inflaming markets; curbing galloping domestic oil demand without dampening consumer spending.

Chen’s appointment in late June as number two at the National Development & Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s super ministry and macro economic planner, will put him at the forefront of energy policy. But it is unlikely to signal a change in long-standing strategic goals or collective decision-making.

More important than shaping policy will be his role as a vocal advocate and implementer, as the world’s second-largest energy user balances freer markets with centralised planning, weighs the benefits of further foreign investment and tries to sell a message of conservation to a wealthier urban population.

He takes the task with the confidence of having mastered the intricacies of regional politics, both in the bustling coastal belt and inland region heavily populated by the country’s poor.

By contrast his predecessor, Zhang Guobao, 62, had spent most of his career in ministries including 25 years in the NDRC and its predecessor, the State Planning Commission.

Having been bred outside the energy industry, Chen may take a more impartial stance in confronting the country’s powerful oil majors – CNPC, Sinopec Group and CNOOC – and major power generators such as Huaneng Group and China Datang Group.

In the absence of an energy ministry, Beijing’s policies remain fragmented among NDRC and several ministries, with final approval coming directly from Premier Wen Jiabao.