[3] Zhao was born in Qi County, Hebi, Henan, and moved to Taiwan in 1949 with her parents.
[4] She became a professor at Tsinghua University (Beijing) in 1988 and in 1991, was elected to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, then the youngest female academician.
[4] In March 2007, Zhao created a petition to halt the construction of a chemical plant in Xiamen.
[5][6] Zhao was against the plant, which was going to produce paraxylene (PX), a carcinogenic petrochemical, due to health risks and pollution of the environment.
"[8] She also started writing letters to propose a relocation of the plant to He Lefeng, the Party chief of Xiamen.