From 2009 to 2014, Sun served in two prominent regional posts, first as Communist Party Secretary of Fujian province, then of Tianjin, one of China's four direct-controlled municipalities. Her tenure in Fujian made her the second female provincial-level party chief since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 (the first was Wan Shaofen). Between 2014 and 2017, she served as head of the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.