Baige ZHAO

Vice Chair of the 12th NPC Foreign Affairs Committee

Chair of Advisory Committee of RDI

Baige ZHAO is a Member of the Standing Committee and Vice Chair of Foreign Affairs Committee of 12th National People's Congress, as well as Chair of Advisory Committee of Research and Development International (RDI). Graduated from the University of Cambridge with a doctoral degree in Biomedicine. Baige Zhao has served as Deputy Secretary of the Party Group and Vice Director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission, Secretary of the Party Group and Executive Vice President of the Red Cross Society of China, Vice President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), and Chair of the Economic Committee of Asian Parliamentary Assembly, etc. 

Baige Zhao has long been committed to promoting the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind and the effective implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative. She actively provides suggestions to the Party Central Committee and the State Council. She has established a new type of applied platform-based think tank composed of domestic and foreign think tanks, cities, enterprises, media, etc., which has played an active role in promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capabilities, promoting the development and practice of the fourth industrial revolution, and serving the Belt and Road Initiative and the community with a shared future for mankind.

Baige Zhao actively promotes the exchange and mutual learning between Chinese and foreign civilizations. During her tenure as a Member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and Vice Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee, she served as the Chair of the China-UK Parliamentary Exchange Mechanism and the Executive Vice Chair of the China-South Africa Parliamentary Exchange Mechanism. She was also the head of the NPC bilateral friendship Group with 8 European countries and 15 African countries, actively promoting exchanges between the National People's Congress and the parliaments of other countries. In 2015, Baige Zhao was elected as the Chair of the Economic Committee of Asian Parliamentary Assembly; in 2018, she was appointed as the Chair of the Advisory Committee of BRI International Think Tank of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; in 2019, she was awarded the National Medal of Honor “Hilal-i-Imtiaz” by the President of Pakistan; and in 2020, she was appointed as a special expert of the Talent Pool for Political Participation and deliberation of the CPPCC National Committee. In 2023, she was appointed as Co-chair of China Council for BRICS Think-tank Cooperation (CCBTC) of the International Department of Central Committee of CPC and member of the First Advisory Committee of the Guangdong-Macao in-deep cooperation zone in Hengqin. 

Baige Zhao actively participated in international humanitarian causes. From 2011 to 2014, Zhao served as Executive Vice President of the Red Cross Society of China. In 2013, she was elected Vice President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), responsible for coordinating affairs of the Asia-Pacific region, actively responding to international humanitarian crises, and conducting conflict and disaster management. In 2016, she was appointed a member of the 3rd National Expert Committee on Climate Change, participating in scientific research and policy formulation on China's response to climate change and low-carbon development. 

Baige Zhao actively promotes the work of population and development. From 2003 to 2011, she served as Deputy Director of the National Population and Family Planning Commission. During that time, she actively participated in the formulation of national population development strategies, promoted reform in the field of population, and improved family planning policies. Baige ZHAO has a significant impact on the field of medical technology. In 1988, Baige Zhao received her doctoral degree in Biomedicine from Cambridge University. From 1989 to 1994, she served as director of Shanghai Institute of Family Planning Research and director of World Health Organization Collaborating Centre, where she organized a series of new drug research and development work; from 1994 to 1998, Baige Zhao served as the director of the Life Science and Technology Development Center (USA) of the State Science and Technology Commission of China, completing the establishment of the overseas expert Committee, as well as the international promotion, financing and registration of major national TCM modernization projects, which promoted Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises to go international.