17 Facts About Zhang Qingwei

Zhang Qingwei is a Chinese politician, business executive, and aerospace engineer, who is a vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.

Zhang Qingwei was formerly the Party Secretary of Hunan, the Party Secretary of Heilongjiang, Governor of Hebei, and chairperson of the Commission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense.

Zhang Qingwei was the deputy leader of the project to send a Chinese man into space, and the leader of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, Chang'e 1.

In 2009, Zhang Qingwei was named one of China's 40 most powerful people by BusinessWeek.

Zhang Qingwei was born in Jilin City, Jilin Province on 7 November 1961, but is considered a native of his ancestral home of Laoting County, Hebei province by Chinese convention.

Zhang Qingwei studied at the aircraft department of Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi'an from September 1978 to August 1982, majoring in aircraft design.

In 1985, Zhang Qingwei returned to NPU to continue his studies, and received a Master of Engineering degree in aircraft control in 1988.

In 1988 Zhang Qingwei returned to work for the Ministry of Aerospace Industry and later joined China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology, the birthplace of China's Long March rocket.

Zhang Qingwei showed exceptional talent at CALT and was credited with the 1990 launch of the AsiaSat 1 satellite for the American company Hughes Satellite Systems.

Zhang Qingwei became the deputy director of CALT in 1996, and the vice-manager of the newly established China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation in 1999.

Zhang Qingwei guided the merger of COSTIND with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2008.

Zhang Qingwei concurrently served as head of the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program.

In 2008 Zhang Qingwei was appointed chairman of the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China, a state-owned enterprise that was newly established to develop China's own jumbo jets.

Zhang Qingwei joined the Chinese Communist Party in December 1992.

Zhang Qingwei has subsequently been elected to full memberships of the 17th and 18th Central Committees.

Zhang Qingwei was one of the earliest examples of rocket scientists taking on major political posts in China, a trend that intensified following Xi Jinping's ascension to the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, with many "space alumni" joining government ranks thereafter.

Zhang Qingwei was transferred to Heilongjiang to serve as party secretary in April 2017, becoming the fourth official born after 1960 to assume a provincial party secretary post.