Zhang Xiangchen was born in June 1965 in Laishui County, Hebei Province. He joined the Chinese Communist Party in November 1985 and began working in April 1991 after completing his studies at Peking University. He served successively as Deputy Division Director and Division Director in the Department of International Affairs of the former Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC). In July 2000, he was appointed Deputy Director-General of the Department of International Affairs. In November 2001, he became Deputy Director-General of the Department of World Trade Organization Affairs and concurrently deputy director of the China WTO Notification and Enquiry Center.[2]
In July 2005, Zhang was promoted to Director-General of the Department of WTO Affairs and concurrently Director of the China WTO Notification and Enquiry Center. In June 2008, he was appointed Deputy Permanent Representative and Minister (Director-General level) of the Permanent Mission of China to the WTO. In August 2011, he became Director-General of the Policy Research Office of the Ministry of Commerce.[3]
In August 2013, Zhang was appointed Assistant Minister of Commerce and a member of the Party Leadership Group. In April 2015, he was promoted to Vice Ministerial-level Deputy International Trade Representative and continued as a member of the Party Leadership Group. In February 2017, Zhang was appointed Permanent Representative and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of China to the WTO, concurrently serving as Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland.[4]
In November 2020, he became a member of the Party Leadership Group of the Ministry of Commerce and was later appointed Vice Minister in December 2020, a position he left in 2021.[5][6] On 4 February 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping formally removed Zhang from his ambassadorial posts in Geneva. On 4 May 2021, WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala announced Zhang as one of the four new Deputy Directors-General of the organization.[7][8]
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