Zhang Peili (; born 1941) is a Chinese geologist and the wife of former Chinese Premier

Wen Jiabao Wen Jiabao (born 15 September 1942) is a retired Chinese politician who served as the Premier of the State Council from 2003 to 2013. In his capacity as head of government, Wen was regarded as the leading figure behind China's economic polic ...

Biography

Zhang was formerly the vice-president of the Chinese Jewelry Association, and president and CEO of Beijing Diamond Jewelries Co., a company which has operations in both the mainland and Hong Kong. Zhang met Wen when he was working in

Jiuquan Jiuquan, formerly known as Suzhou, is a prefecture-level city in the northwesternmost part of Gansu Province in the People's Republic of China. It is more than wide from east to west, occupying , although its built-up area is mostly located in i ...

as part of

Gansu Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibe ...

's Bureau of Geology. Being described as a strong-willed woman, her personality is in strict contrast to that of her husband, who is fairly introverted and modest. Zhang is never seen on any official occasions with the Premier. In 2007 Taiwan's

TVBS TVBS Media Inc. (), formerly Liann Yee Production Co., Ltd. (), is a Taiwanese commercial television broadcasting company. It was originally established as a joint venture between TVB in Hong Kong and Era Group in Taiwan, but TVB took over E ...

found Zhang to be wearing a bracelet worth over 2 million RMB (approximately US$300,000) at a jewelry convention, and she was in Taiwan to buy a necklace valued 14 million RMB (approximately US$2,240,000) According to a U.S. diplomatic cable posted by

WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is an international non-profit organisation that published news leaks and classified media provided by anonymous sources. Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its founder and director and ...

, Wen has sought to divorce Zhang and is "disgusted" by how she has used his name to extract huge commissions in the diamond trade."Wikileaks airs Communist Party's dirty linen"
. Wantchinatimes.com (28 June 2011). Retrieved on 23 March 2012. Zhang and Wen have a son and a daughter,

Wen Yunsong Wen Yunsong, also known as Winston Wen () is a Chinese businessman and current CEO of Unihub Global Networks, a Chinese networking company. He is the son of former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and thus a princeling. Mr. Wen was a principal of New ...

and Wen Ruchun. Zhang is a geologist with expertise in gemstones with a background as a government regulator of the gemstone trade and manager of state-owned diamond firms which were later privatized. She created the principal institutions which regulate the gemstone trade in China, the National Gemstone Testing Center and the

Shanghai Diamond Exchange Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...

. Her private gemstone and jewellery business was successful, and after her husband attained high position, her fortune grew rapidly. Despite her great wealth she dresses modestly.

Government and business activities

As manager of the National Gemstone Testing Center in Beijing and the China Mineral and Gem Corporation a

state-owned enterprise A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

Zhang was in a pivotal position which gave her the power to facilitate or deny entry by global diamond firms such as Cartier or

De Beers De Beers Group is an international corporation that specializes in diamond mining, diamond exploitation, diamond retail, diamond trading and industrial diamond manufacturing sectors. The company is active in open-pit, large-scale alluvial and ...

into the regulated Chinese market. In addition, using her position as manager of China Mineral and Gem Corporation, she facilitated a number of startups such as Beijing Diamond, a retailer; Shenzhen Diamond; and Sino-Diamond, a diamond importer, in the jewellery and gem business which her colleagues and family members were given the opportunity to invest in. Investments in other industries were financed by sale of interests in the diamond firms to wealthy businessmen. There is no evidence that her husband, the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, played a role in advancing Zhang and her friends and relatives' fortunes, but, according to interviews by ''New York Times'' reporters with former associates, Zhang has freely traded on the association during the decades of the 1990s and 2000s implying that government favor followed those showing favor to her family and associates.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zhang, Peili Wen Jiabao family

Female Female ( symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Fema ...

Businesspeople from Gansu Spouses of national leaders Living people 1941 births People from Lanzhou Scientists from Gansu