Zhang Qingwei
张庆伟
Zhang in 2025
Vice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 March 2023
Chairman	Zhao Leji
Party Secretary of Hunan
In office 18 October 2021 – 14 March 2023
Deputy	Mao Weiming (governor)
Preceded by	Xu Dazhe
Succeeded by	Shen Xiaoming
Chairman of Hunan Provincial People's Congress
In office 19 January 2022 – 28 March 2023
Preceded by	Xu Dazhe
Party Secretary of Heilongjiang
In office 1 April 2017 – 18 October 2021
Deputy	Lu Hao→Wang Wentao (governor)
Preceded by	Wang Xiankui
Succeeded by	Xu Qin
Governor of Hebei
In office 10 January 2012 – 1 April 2017
Party Secretary	Zhou Benshun Zhao Kezhi
Preceded by	Chen Quanguo
Succeeded by	Xu Qin
Chairperson ofCommission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense
In office 30 August 2007 – 15 March 2008
Premier	Wen Jiabao
Preceded by	Zhang Yunchuan
Succeeded by	Chen Qiufa
Personal details
Born	(1961-11-07)7 November 1961 (age 64) Jilin City,Jilin, China
Political party	Chinese Communist Party
Alma mater	Northwestern Polytechnical University
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese	张庆伟
Traditional Chinese	張慶偉
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhāng Qìngwěi

Zhang Qingwei (Chinese:张庆伟; born 7 November 1961) is a Chinese politician, business executive, andaerospace engineer, who is avice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. He was formerly theParty Secretary of Hunan, theParty Secretary of Heilongjiang,Governor of Hebei, and chairperson of theCommission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND). Prior to his government career he was president ofChina Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) and chairman ofComac, an aerospace manufacturer.^[1][2][3]

Zhang was well known for his work for military contractors, and headed the team that designed and constructed theXian JH-7 "flying leopard" combat aircraft. He was also the deputy leader of the project to send a Chinese man into space, and the leader of theChinese Lunar Exploration Program,Chang'e 1. In 2009, Zhang was named one of China's 40 most powerful people byBusinessWeek.^[4][5]

Zhang was born inJilin City,Jilin Province on 7 November 1961,^[6][7] but is considered a native of hisancestral home ofLaoting County,Hebei province by Chinese convention.^[3][7] His family later moved toTangshan, Hebei.^[6]

Zhang studied at the aircraft department ofNorthwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) inXi'an from September 1978 to August 1982, majoring in aircraft design.^[1][3] After graduation, he was assigned to No. 603 Research Institute of theMinistry of Aerospace Industry, designing aircraft tails.^[7] Within three years he became the leader of a team that developed theFBC-1fighter-bomber that is still in use by thePeople's Liberation Army Air Force.^[6]

In 1985, Zhang returned to NPU to continue his studies, and received a Master of Engineering degree in aircraft control in 1988.^[1][6]

In 1988 Zhang returned to work for the Ministry of Aerospace Industry and later joinedChina Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT), the birthplace of China'sLong March rocket.^[6] He showed exceptional talent at CALT^[6] and was credited with the 1990 launch of theAsiaSat 1 satellite for the American companyHughes Satellite Systems. It marked the first time for the Long March rocket to successfully launch a foreign satellite.^[7]

After the success with AsiaSat 1, Zhang was tasked with developing theLong March 2 rocket for China'shuman spaceflight program (later called theShenzhou program). He became the deputy director of CALT in 1996,^[7] and the vice-manager of the newly establishedChina Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) in 1999. In 2001 he was appointed president of CASC, and starting in February 2002 he concurrently served as deputy chief commander of the Shenzhou program.^[3] In October 2003Shenzhou 5 completed China's first ever human spaceflight mission, and two years later two more astronauts safely returned to earth after a five-day spaceflight onShenzhou 6.^[7]

In August 2007 Zhang was appointed chairperson of theCommission for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (COSTIND), becoming one of the youngest persons to hold a minister-level post in China.^[7] He guided the merger of COSTIND with theMinistry of Industry and Information Technology in 2008.^[6] He also concurrently served as head of theChinese Lunar Exploration Program.^[3]

In 2008 Zhang was appointed chairman of theCommercial Aircraft Corporation of China (Comac),^[1][3] astate-owned enterprise that was newly established to develop China's ownjumbo jets.^[6] In 2009, he drew international attention after being named one of China's 40 most powerful people byBusinessWeek.^[4][5]

Zhang joined theChinese Communist Party (CCP) in December 1992. In 2002, less than ten years after he joined the party, he was appointed to the16thCentral Committee of the CCP, the party's top authority.^[1][3] At age 41 he was the youngest full member of the committee.^[5] He has subsequently been elected to full memberships of the17th and18th Central Committees.^[1][2]

In August 2011 Zhang left Comac and was appointed acting governor ofHebei Province, replacingChen Quanguo, who had been promoted to Party Secretary ofTibet Autonomous Region. In January 2012 he was officially elected by the Hebei Provincial Congress as governor, and reelected in January 2013.^[2] Zhang was one of the earliest examples of rocket scientists taking on major political posts in China, a trend that intensified followingXi Jinping's ascension to theGeneral Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, with many "space alumni" joining government ranks thereafter. Zhang was transferred toHeilongjiang to serve as party secretary in April 2017, becoming the fourth official born after 1960 to assume a provincial party secretary post.^[3]

On 18 October 2021, he was transferred tocentral China'sHunan province and appointed Party Secretary, the top political position in the province.^[8] On March 10, 2023, during the14th National People's Congress, he was appointedVice Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress.^[9][10]

• Top ten young scientists in the space industry (1991)
• Top ten outstanding young people in China (1999)
• CCTV business figure of the year (2003)^[7]

• 1961 births
• Living people
• Businesspeople from Jilin
• CCP committee secretaries of Heilongjiang
• Council of Chairpersons of the Standing Committee of the 14th National People's Congress
• Chinese aerospace engineers
• Chinese aircraft designers
• Chinese Communist Party politicians from Jilin
• Comac
• Delegates to the 13th National People's Congress
• Delegates to the 14th National People's Congress
• Engineers from Jilin
• Governors of Hebei
• Members of the 16th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
• Members of the 17th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
• Members of the 18th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
• Members of the 19th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
• Members of the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party
• Northwestern Polytechnical University alumni
• People from Jilin City
• People's Republic of China politicians from Jilin
• Rocket scientists
• Chinese Communist Party secretaries of Hunan

• CS1 uses Chinese-language script (zh)
• CS1 Chinese-language sources (zh)
• Articles containing Chinese-language text
• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Articles containing simplified Chinese-language text