Background
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. His family later moved to Tangshan, Hebei.
庆伟 张
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. His family later moved to Tangshan, Hebei.
Zhang studied at the aircraft department of Northwestern Polytechnical University (NPU) in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province from September 1978 to August 1982, majoring in aircraft design. After graduation, he was assigned to No. 603 Research Institute of the Ministry of Aerospace Industry, designing aircraft tails. Within three years he became the leader of a team that developed the FBC-1 fighter-bomber that is still in use by the People's Liberation Army Air Force. In 1985 Zhang returned to NPU to continue his studies, and received a Master of Engineering degree in aircraft control in 1988.
From 1992 he served as the deputy chief designer of the carrier rocket (LM-2F) for project 921 at the China Aerospace Industry Corporation. Project 921, the mission to put China’s first human in space, received the official go-ahead in 1992, and Zhang became deputy director of CALT in 1996. On 1 July 1999, the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation was established under a government restructuring plan intended to reform the defense industry. CASC took over 130 organizations from the former China Aerospace Industry Corporation, including eight primary research and design academies, such as CALT and the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), which builds the majority of China’s satellites. CAST is the designer of China’s first man-made satellite, DFH-1. In October 2003 China completed its first manned space flight, when the Shenzhou V capsule with Astronaut Yang Liwei returned safely to earth. At the time, Zhang Qingwei remarked that China would turn its attention to establishing a space laboratory and then a space station. In October 2005 China sent two astronauts on a five-day flight on its Shenzhou VI rocket.
Zhang was appointed chairman of COSTIND in August 2007, replacing Zhang Yunchuan, who was appointed party secretary of Hebei Province. At 46, Zhang Qingwei was one of the youngest individuals to hold a minister-level position in China. He serves concurrently as deputy head of the Lunar Exploration Program Leading Group (post held since 2004), deputy commander of the Human Spaceflight Program (post held since 2002), head of the Lunar Orbit Working Group (LOWG), and chairman of the Chinese Society of Astronautics and vice president of the 10th Committee of the All-China Youth Federation. It is widely believed that he will also replace Zhang Yunchuan as head of the Lunar Exploration Program Leading Group. Before his appointment as chairman of COSTIND, he served as president of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), the main contractor for the Chinese space program (post held since 2001).
According to Zhang Qingwei, one of COSTIND’s major tasks in 2008 was to be the restructuring of the state-owned, military-run aviation industry in order to meet China’s rapidly growing demand for advanced fighter aircraft, regional planes and jumbo passenger jets. Rumors are circulating about a merger between the large plane maker China Aviation Industry Corporation I (AVIC I) and helicopter and propeller plane builder AVIC II. The government split AVIC into two companies in 1999 in an effort to make the business more flexible and competitive.
Zhang joined the Communist Party of China (CPC) in December 1992. In 2002, less than ten years after he joined the party, he was appointed to the 16th Central Committee of the CPC, the party's top authority. At age 41 he was the youngest full member of the committee. He has subsequently been elected to full memberships of the 17th and 18th Central Committees.
In August 2011 Zhang left Comac and was appointed acting governor and Deputy Communist Party Chief of Hebei Province, replacing Chen Quanguo, who had been promoted to Party Chief of Tibet Autonomous Region. In January 2012 he was officially elected by the Hebei Provincial Congress as governor, and reelected in January 2013.