Xi jinping li keqiang zhang dejiang biography

He was also the third-ranking member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party from to Zhang successively served as the Party Secretary of the provinces of Jilin and Zhejiang from to From to , he served as vice premier in charge of energy, telecommunications, and transportation under Premier Wen Jiabao , widely known for being Wen's 'troubleshooter' of choice, leading various disaster response task forces, such as during the Heilongjiang mine explosion and the Wenzhou train collision.

In March , Zhang briefly replaced Bo Xilai as the party secretary of Chongqing , who was removed due to a political scandal. He also became the deputy head of the National Security Commission and the top official responsible for Hong Kong and Macau affairs. In , he was promoted to become the deputy party secretary of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of Jilin Province.

In August , he was transferred to the State Council , becoming a deputy minister at the Ministry of Civil Affairs. Zhang rose to prominence during the era of general secretary Jiang Zemin. Zhang accompanied Jiang on a visit to North Korea in March His connections to North Korea and his handling of illegal immigration from that country as a local official in Jilin are believed to be key factors in his rise to power.

In , he was made party secretary of Jilin , beginning a long road of serving as the first-in-charge of various provincial-level jurisdictions. In , Zhang became party secretary of Zhejiang.

Xi jinping wife

Zhang was known for allowing private business to operate freely, within the bounds of the law. In , Zhang wrote an article attacking the idea of allowing business owners to join the Communist Party, claiming that doing so would ruin the party, shortly before Jiang formally accepted the idea through the Three Represents idea. During his tenure in Guangdong Zhang focused on issues such as the privatisation of the economy, education, and the alleviation of poverty.

Zhang's appointment came immediately after the beginning of the SARS crisis, which began in Guangdong.