Professor Zhang is the first Chinese to be a legal adviser to the World Bank, the first Chinese director of the European Bureau of the Asian Development Bank, the first Chinese director of the West African Development Bank, and the first Chinese judge of the World Trade Organization. She has served as one of the seven members and Chair of the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization, the global court of final appeal in international trade in Geneva, Switzerland between 2007 and 2016. She is professor at Tsinghua University and Shantou University. Since 16 September 2017, Professor Zhang has been designated by the President of the World Bank to the Panel of Arbitrators of the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Dispute (ICSID) for 6 years.