Zhang Guohua was born into a poor family in Guanshan Village, Huaizhong Town, Yongxin County, Jiangxi Province.

In January 1939, the Japanese invasion of China into the Taihang Mountains after the local sweep, Zhang Guohua led two companies of troops directly under the composition of the Ruxi working group, in Yuncheng-Heze area established the Western Shandong Anti-Japanese Base, with the formation of the seventh anti-Japanese detachment where he served as political commissar.

[5] In April 1940, the Luxi Military District (Chinese: 鲁西军区) was established, and Zhang Guohua became the political commissar of the Yellow River Detachment.

Later, the Yellow River Detachment was reorganized into the Fourth Brigade of Instruction of the 115th Division and the Huxi Military Region was established.

[11] On January 2, 1950, Mao Zedong, who was still visiting the Soviet Union,[12] telephoned the CCP Southwest Bureau (Chinese: 中共中央西南局), requesting the formation of a leading organ for operating Tibet.

[15] On October 7, 1950, Zhang Guohua commanded the Battle of Chamdo, forcing the Kashag of Tibet to send its representatives to Beijing to conduct negotiations and reach the Seventeen Point Agreement.

There, he endorsed the summary by Zhou Enlai that because India chose to occupy disputed territory with China, instead of peacefully resolving the border demarcation with it like Nepal, Burma, and Mongolia, that "Nehru has closed all roads.

As the Commander of the Tibet military region, Zhang was present for the formal decision to go to war with India in "self-defense" at the politburo meeting of October 18.