Career
Beginning in the 1990s, Zhao served as the mayor, then Communist Party Secretary, of the city of Huaiyin (now Huai"an). In 1998 he became the Secretary General of the Jiangsu provincial Party Committee, in charge of the execution of provincial party policy. He retired from politics in November 2006.
Subsequently he became Vice-President of the non-profit China Aging Development Foundation.
He was investigated by the Communist Party"s anti-graft body in 2014 for corruption, then expelled from the Communist Party. He faces criminal charges related to bribery and foreign exchange fraud.
Zhao was born and raised in Yuanping City, Shanxi province, during the Republic of China. In 1965, he entered the Harbin Institute of Military Engineering (哈尔滨军事工程学院), majoring in radio measurement, after graduating in 1970 he was assigned to Nanjing Bridge Machinery Works (南京大桥机器厂).
In September 1992, he became the Deputy Party Secretary and Mayor of Huaiyin.
He was re-elected in 1993. He was elevated to party chief of Huaiyin in 1994. In June 1998, he was promoted to become the Secretary General of the provincial party committee, and a provincial Party Standing Committee member.
He was re-elected in March 2000, and began his third term in April 2003.
In December 2006, he became the First Vice-President of the China Aging Development Foundation (中国老龄事业发展基金会). On October 11, 2014, the state media reported that he was being investigated by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China for "serious violations of laws and regulations".
On August 14, 2015, Zhao was expelled from the Communist Party of China after investigation by the CCDI. He was indicted on two criminal charges: bribery and fraudulent purchase of foreign exchange.
