Howard Zhang is a former head of BBC’s China Service, a seasoned journalist, broadcaster, and media commentator specializing in Chinese contemporary history, domestic politics, and geopolitics. Born in Mao-era China, Zhang grew up in the early reform years of Deng, and left China in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. He lived and studied in Canada in the 1990s, and moved to London in 2000 and worked for the BBC World Service for nearly 24 years. Zhang was head of BBC News Chinese from 2016 to 2023.