She is a professor at the Capital University of Economics and Business and the widow of the former Chinese premier Li Keqiang.

During the Cultural Revolution, she became a sent-down youth in Guangkuo Tiandi Township, Jia County, Henan.

After graduation, she engaged in advanced studies at Tsinghua University, where she met her future husband Li Keqiang.

Considered one of the leading Chinese scholars of American nature writing, as of 2012 she had published two books on the subject and translated several books from English to Chinese,[4] including The Singing Wilderness by Sigurd Olson, and The Outermost House by Henry Beston.

[5] Cheng was married to Li Keqiang until his death in 2023; he served as Premier of the People's Republic of China from 2013 to 2023.