Her research takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the relationship between communication and policy in US-China relations, which she regularly publishes research in both English and Chinese, and she is a noted commentator on the policies pursued by the People's Republic of China.

[1] In 1986, she migrated to Canada to pursue her post-graduate education at Simon Fraser University.

[5] As a result of her research, she also earned the Chang-Jiang Scholar Award from the People's Republic of China, Ministry of Education in 2009.

[8] While teaching at SFU, Zhao created the Global Communication Double MA Degree program,[9] which would win the 2014 gold prize in the Educational Excellence Award category at the Canada-China Business Council's 4th Canada-China Business Excellence Awards.

[10] In 2013, she received SFU's C. Edwin Baker Award for "the Advancement of Scholarship on Media, Markets and Democracy.