Zhang Weiwei (professor)

Zhang Weiwei is a Chinese professor of international relations at Fudan University and the director of its China Institute. Zhang is also an Internet celebrity, spreading his political ideas through online video platforms such as Xigua Video, Bilibili, TikTok and YouTube.

Zhang is a strong defender of China's political and economic system. Therefore, he is favored by Chinese leader Xi Jinping. Some of his political views, such as the "Superiority of the China Model" and the OBOR is "an unprecedented change in five thousand years", have been criticized by scholars such as Xiang Lanxin for not being in line with historical facts.

Early life
Zhang is the youngest of six siblings in his family. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), his older siblings all went to the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps while he stayed in Shanghai because of a policy. In 1975, at the age of 17, he was recruited into the No.2 Shanghai Carving Factory (上海雕刻二厂) as a worker and jade carving apprentice.

Education
Soon after, the college entrance examinations resumed with the end of the Cultural Revolution, and in 1977 Zhang was admitted to the foreign languages department of Fudan University, where he persuaded the dean to sit in on courses in international politics. From 1981 to 1983, Zhang was a postgraduate student at Beijing Foreign Studies University, studying translation.

In 1988, Zhang went to the University of Geneva's Graduate Institute of International Studies for a master's degree in international relations (1990) and then pursued a PhD, which he received in 1994.

Interpreter
From 1983 to 1988, Zhang was one of many English interpreters of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, worked for some Chinese leaders, including Deng Xiaoping and Li Peng, in the mid-1980s.

Academia
Zhang has written extensively in English and Chinese on People's Republic of China's economic and political reform, China's development model and comparative politics. He expanded on the concept of a civilization state with his book The China Wave: Rise of a Civilizational State (2012). His always echoed the views of the Chinese Communist Party.

Propaganda
Zhang is a high-ranking ideologist in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The New York Times characterized him as a propagandist-academic.

On May 17, 2016, Zhang attended the National Symposium on the Work of Philosophy and Social Sciences chaired by CCP general secretary Xi Jinping. On May 31, 2021, Zhang gave a lecture to the Politburo of the CCP on strengthening China's international propaganda.

Nationalism
Zhang preaches eradicating China's "Spiritual Americans".

TV
Since 2019, Zhang has been the host of "This is China" (这就是中国), a lecture on the virtues of the Chinese government, launched by Dragon Television, a state-run TV channel.

Political Views
According to Zhang, the concept of political party in the Western context does not apply to the CCP. The CCP is a ruling group that follows Chinese political traditions and represents the interests of a nation as a whole.

Affiliations

 * Zhang is a Senior research fellow at the Chunqiu Institute, a self-tyled think tank in Shanghai.

Articles

 * Zhang, W. (2005). Overseas Chinese and the Concept of "Greater China". Refugee Survey Quarterly, 24(4), 65–73.
 * Zhang, W. (2006). Long-term Outlook for China’s Political Reform. Asia Europe Journal, 4(2), 151–175.