Background
Zhang Peili was born in 1941 in China.
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Zhang Peili
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Career
Zhang Peili is a geologist with expertise in gemstones with a background as a government regulator of the gemstone trade and manager of state-owned diamond firms which were later privatized. She created the principal institutions which regulate the gemstone trade in China, the National Gemstone Testing Center and the Shanghai Diamond Exchange.
As manager of the National Gemstone Testing Center in Beijing and the China Mineral and Gem Corporation a state-owned enterprise Zhang was in a pivotal position which gave her the power to facilitate or deny entry by global diamond firms such as Cartier or De Beers into the regulated Chinese market.
Zhang Peili was formerly the Vice-President of the Chinese Jewelry Association, and President and Chief Executive Officer of Beijing Diamond Jewelries Company, a company which has operations in both the mainland and Hong Kong.
Personality
In 2007 Taiwan"s TVBS found Zhang Peili to be wearing a bracelet worth over 2 million RMB (approximately United States$300,000) at a jewelry convention, and she was in Taiwan to buy a necklace valued 14 million RMB (approximately United States$2,240,000). Despite her great wealth she dresses modestly.
Connections
Zhang Peili met Wen when he was working in Jiuquan as part of Gansu"s Bureau of Geology. She is never seen on any official occasions with the Premier.
According to a United States diplomatic cable posted by WikiLeaks, Wen has sought to divorce Zhang Peili and is "disgusted" by how she has used his name to extract huge commissions in the diamond trade.
