Yanfeng Zhu

Background

Zhu was born in Fenghua, Zhejiang Province in March 1961. He is the grandson of renowned meteorologist Chu Coching.

Education

He graduated from the Department of Automation at Zhejiang University in August 1983.

Career

After graduation he was assigned to work as a technician at Changchun First Automobile, the same company in which his father worked. In 1992 he was appointed deputy head of the Research Section of the Measurement Division, and in 1994, director of the FAW’s Foreign Economic Division. In 1997 he began serving as vice president of China FAW Group Corporation and was appointed president of FAW Limousine Co. Ltd. In 1998, he took up office as the executive vice president of the group. Zhu was appointed president of FAW Group on 28 February 1999. He served concurrently as chairman of the board of Tianjin FAW Xiali Automobile Co. Ltd (a post held since 2002, when Tianjin Automobile was merged into the FAW Group), vice president of the All-China Youth Federation (post held since 2000), and chairman of the Presidium of the Fourth Council of China Industrial Economics Federation (CFIE).

First Automobile was founded on 15 July 1953 with assistance from the former Soviet Union. Headquartered in Changchun City, Jilin Province, it is regarded as the cradle of China’s auto industry. Chairman Mao Zedong participated in its foundation stone-laying ceremony and inscribed its name. In 1956, the Jiefang (Liberation) truck, China’s first indigenous heavyweight vehicle, rolled off the assembly line. The company’s latest Jiefang J6 series, which took six years to develop, meets top internationally recognized standards. In addition to the Jiefang trucks, FAW produces the Hongqi (Red Flag) sedan. The first Dongfeng model automobile, the predecessor to the Hongqi luxury sedan, was produced in May 1958, and the first Hongqi model 72 on 1 August of the same year. The Hongqi was long used by Communist Party officials.

In July 1991 Changchun First Automobile was reorganized as China First Automobile Works (FAW) Group Corporation. FAW cooperates with Volkswagen, Audi, Mazda, Toyota, and Hyundai. At the end of 2005, the first hybrid car entered the Chinese market. Sichuan FAW Toyota Motor Co. Ltd, a joint venture between FAW Group and Toyota Motor Corporation, began production of the Prius model exclusively for China in Changchun in December that year. It is Toyota’s first hybrid car not produced in Japan. In 2006 at the second Hamburg Summit, China Meets Europe, Zhu Yanfeng outlined the strategy of China’s automobile producers, who aim to conquer the low-price segment of the market, while cooperating with foreign producers or importers in the higher price classes.

Achievements

• The FAW’s new motto is: ‘Our Dream: Let Every Chinese Family Own a Car.’ It announced in summer 2007 that it would spend 13 billion yuan ($1.7 billion) in the next eight years to develop its own vehicle brands. Under Zhu, FAW aimed to lift its produc- tion to two million units by 2010, half of which would be self-branded models, worth a total of 200 billion yuan (US$25 billion). To recognize his contribution to the Chinese auto industry, Zhu was named a national model worker in 2000, and the CCTV business figure of the year in 2002. In December 2007, Zhu was elected vice governor of Jilin Province where FAW is located.

Politics

Zhu joined the Communist Party of China in 1982. He is an alternate member of both the 16th and 17th Central Committees of the Chinese Communist Party.