Born in Tianjin in September 1942.
Member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) since April 1965.
Graduated from the Geology and Minerals Department of Beijing Geology Institute (1965). Completed post-graduate studies at the institute (1968).
1968-1982: held different posts in the Geology Department of the Geology Office of the Gansu government, rising to department head.
1982-1983: deputy head of a research group on legislation and politics at the Ministry of Geology and Mineral Resources.
1983-1985: Deputy Minister of Geology and Mineral Resources.
1985-1986: deputy head of the CPC Central Committee's General Office.
1986-1993: head of the CPC Central Committee's General Office.
November 1987: elected member of the CPC Central Committee and approved as candidate for the CPC Central Committee Secretariat.
1987-1993: secretary of the CPC Central Committee's commission on the work of the staff and other establishments of the CPC Central Committee.
October 1992: elected member of the CPC Central Committee, candidate to the CPC Central Committee Politburo, and member of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat.
1992: head of secretariat of the CPC Central Committee's Leading Group on Finance and Economy.
September 1997: elected member of the CPC Central Committee Politburo and member of the CPC Central Committee Secretariat.
January 1998: appointed secretary of the CPC Central Committee's Commission on Finance.
March 1998: Deputy Premier; also held the posts of the chief of the Main State Headquarters for fighting floods and draughts, chairman of the National Committee for Landscape Gardening, chairman of the National Committee for International Environmental Cooperation and Development, head of the Leading Group of the State Council on assistance to the poor regions.
November 2002: elected member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Politburo at the 16th CPC Congress (re-elected in October 2007 at the 17th CPC Congress).
March 2003: elected Premier at the first session of the 10th National People's Congress (re-elected at the first session of the 11th National People's Congress in March 2008).
Visited Russia many times.
He met his wife, Zhang Peili (b. September 1941), when he was working with a team of geologists in Gansu in the late 1960s. At present, Zhang Peili is director of China's National Centre of Jewellery and Nephrite Quality. She seldom makes public appearances, even in cases stipulated by protocol for the wife of premier.