Pronunciation: Zhang Mao (pronunciation: Jahng Mahw)
Chinese: 张茅
Title: CCP Central Committee Member; Deputy Party Secretary, State Market Regulatory Administration Party Leadership Group; Director, State Market Regulatory Administration
Salutation: Director Zhang
Zhang Mao is director of the newly formed State Market Regulatory Administration (SMRA). This business super regulator combines functions of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA), the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection, and Quarantine, and the anti-monopoly functions of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Ministry of Commerce. Former CFDA Director Bi Jingquan serves as the party secretary of the new SMRA, meaning that Director Zhang’s responsibilities will likely be more oriented toward implementation rather than policy direction. Prior to the creation of SMRA, Zhang was director of SAIC.
Born in 1954, Zhang graduated with a master’s degree in party history from Renmin University of China in 1984. He received a doctorate from Peking University in the history of economic thinking in 2000. Zhang began his career at a state-owned glass factory in Beijing, eventually becoming party secretary of the factory in 1986. He began working for the Beijing government in 1992 and became deputy party secretary and chief of Haidian District in 1994. In 1998, Zhang was named vice mayor of Beijing, where he was responsible for economic restructuring, foreign trade, personnel, cultural issues, and health care issues. He became vice minister of the NDRC in 2006, and in 2009, was named party secretary and vice minister of the former Ministry of Health. When the Ministry of Health was dissolved and integrated into the National Health and Family Planning Commission in March 2013, Zhang became party secretary and director of SAIC, positions he served until March 2018.