Chen Zhili

Chen Zhili (simplified Chinese: 陈至立; traditional Chinese: 陳至立; pinyin: Chén Zhìlì; born November 1942) is a retired senior female politician of the People's Republic of China, who served as State Councilor and Minister of Education, and a Vice Chairperson of the National People's Congress. She was vice chairman of the organization commission of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Born in Xianyou County, Fujian Province, Chen graduated from the department of physics at Fudan University. She pursued her postgraduate degree at Shanghai Institute of Ceramics of Chinese Academy of Sciences, doing research of solid-state physics. Chen joined the Communist Party of China ("CPC") in January 1961. At the beginning of the Cultural Revolution, Chen was sent to work in an army farm for two years before returning to the Institute. In 1982, she was at Penn State University in the United States as a visiting scholar. After that, she was elevated to vice Party Chief of the Institute, and thus transformed from a scholar to a CPC official.

Chen's former posts in Shanghai included vice secretary and later, secretary of the CPC committee of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission, director of the propaganda department of Shanghai, and vice secretary of CPC Shanghai committee. During her tenure in Shanghai, Jiang Zemin, Zhu Rongji, Wu Bangguo and Huang Ju served as Shanghai's Party chief.

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