Zhang Zulin

Zhang Zulin (Chinese: 张祖林; born June 1959) is a former Chinese politician who spent his entire career in southwest China's Yunnan province. As of March 2023 he was under investigation by China's top graft busters. Previously he served as vice governor of Yunnan.

He was a delegate to the 11th National People's Congress.

Zhang was born in June 1959 in Zhaotong, Yunnan. After the Cultural Revolution, he was a sent-down youth for a short time from September 1977 to February 1978. After resuming the college entrance examination, in 1978, he enrolled at the Department of Physics, Yunnan University, where he majored in radio.

After graduating in January 1982, he was assigned to Zhaotong TV Station for a year. In March 1983, he became a reporter from Yunnan Television Station, a position he held until October 1990, when he was promoted to deputy director of the Editorial Office.

Zhang joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in March 1985, and got involved in politics in August 1991. In 1991, he became deputy magistrate of Yongren County, rising to magistrate in 1993. He was vice governor of Chuxiong Yi Autonomous Prefecture in February 1995, and held that office until June 2000. He served as deputy director of Yunnan Provincial Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau in June 2000, and two years later promoted to the director position. In June 2005, he was named acting mayor of Lijiang, confirmed in May 2007. He was appointed mayor of Kunming in November 2007, concurrently serving as deputy party secretary. In December 2012, he was promoted to party secretary of Yuxi. It would be his first job as "first-in-charge" of a prefecture-level city. He was chosen as vice governor of Yunnan in August 2014, a post he kept until January 2018.

On 1 March 2024, he has come under investigation for "serious violations of discipline and laws" by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the party's internal disciplinary body, and the National Supervisory Commission, the highest anti-corruption agency of China. Qiu He and Zhang Tianxin, both were his superiors in Kunming, were sacked for graft.