Chong graduated from the Beijing Institute of Foreign Trade (now the University of International Business and Economics), majoring in English. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in November 1970. From September 1974 to February 1978, he studied English at the Beijing Institute of Foreign Trade. After graduation, he worked in the Political Department and the International Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade. Between April 1980 and December 1982, he served in the Language Division of the United Nations Office at Geneva.[2]
From 1982 to 1988, Chong worked in the International Department of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade. He later served as Second Secretary at the Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom (1988–1991). In 1991, he became deputy director of the Office of the Personnel Department of the Ministry of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade. From 1992 to 1996, he held several posts in the Macao Branch of Xinhua News Agency, including head of the Economic Research Division, director of the Economic Department, and deputy head (vice-departmental level).[3][4]
From 1996 to 2002, he served as deputy director-general of the Asian Department of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, during which he attended the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 1998. He later became director-general of the Department of European Affairs and then of the Department of Foreign Affairs under the Ministry of Commerce.[5]
From September 2003 to September 2006, Chong was Director-General of the General Office of the Ministry of Commerce and concurrently served as the Ministry's spokesperson and director of its Information Office. Between 2006 and 2010, he was Assistant Minister of Commerce and a member of the Ministry's Party Leadership Group. From July 2010 to June 2013, he served as Deputy China International Trade Representative (vice-ministerial level) and member of the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Commerce.[6] He then serves as President of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies.[7][8]
In June 2013, Chong was removed from the post of Deputy China International Trade Representative (vice-ministerial level). On November 4, 2015, the 17th Meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress accepted his request to resign from the position of a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the 12th NPC.[9][1]