As Premier Li Keqiang's principal lieutenant, Zhang's portfolio spanned the fields of finance, economic development, natural resources, the environment, and housing.

He chaired the ad-hoc steering committees overseeing the Three Gorges Dam, the South–North Water Transfer Project, One Belt One Road, and the Commission on Food Safety of the State Council.

On 2 November 2021, Chinese women's tennis player Peng Shuai accused Zhang of sexually assaulting her, and also referred to an extramarital affair between the two from which he had recently walked away.

After graduating in August 1970, Zhang was sent to an oil company logistics team in Maoming to work as a construction worker, stocking materials in a warehouse and moving concrete blocks.

He served under then-provincial party secretary Li Changchun and alongside executive vice governor Wang Qishan.

[5] In Shandong, Zhang told a gathering of assembled local officials, "whether it is my relatives, children, friends; if they go to where you are, please do not go out of your way to receive them, do not carry favour with them, and do not offer to do things for them."

While he was seen as a top contender for a seat on the CCP Politburo Standing Committee, along with the regional chiefs of Chongqing and Guangdong, Bo Xilai, and Wang Yang, respectively, Zhang was decidedly less showy and avoided self-promotion.

"[7] It was reported that Zhang Gaoli was responsible for promoting the "immature" over-the-counter equity trading platform during his tenure as the Party Secretary of Tianjin.

The platform was criticized for opening the door for "social crooks" to conduct financial fraud, causing hundreds of thousands of investors across China to be defrauded, with tens of billions of yuan at stake.

[8] After the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012, Zhang earned a seat on the CCP Politburo Standing Committee (PSC), China's de facto top ruling council.

Zhang's wide-ranging leadership roles made him a major force in the implementation of the so-called "New Normal" economic policies of Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang.

Zhang Xiaoyan is married to Li Shengpo (李圣泼), the son of Hong Kong businessman Lee Yin Yee of Xinyi Glass.

[15] Fujian-based website Straight Consume once published an article that alleged that Zhang's eldest brother had left China and died fighting as part of an insurrection against the government of the Philippines sometime in the 1960s.

[24][25] During a press conference on 3 November, Wang Wenbin, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said he had "not heard of this issue, and it is not a diplomatic question".

Her subsequent disappearance led to worldwide concerns over her whereabouts and safety, to the point the Women's Tennis Association suspended all events in China.