100 Notable alumni of Peking University

Guo Yonghuai was a Chinese aerospace engineer and aerodynamics scientist.

Tang Chun-I or Tang Junyi was a Chinese philosopher who was one of the leading exponents of New Confucianism. Born in Sichuan, he moved to Hong Kong in 1949 due to the establishment of the People's Republic of China and co-founded New Asia College with the dual objective of modernizing China while upholding its traditional values.

Gu Jiegang was a Chinese historian, philologist, and folklorist, noted for his critiques of traditional historiography. Born to a family of scholars in Suzhou, he developed a great interest in philology and the Chinese classics from an early age. He became involved in radical politics following the 1911 Revolution, but grew disillusioned and began to focus on historical studies. He...

Chen Baosheng is a Chinese politician and academic administrator. He was once the Minister of Education, and the party chief and vice-president of the China National School of Administration and vice-president of the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party.

Zhou Jihong is a Chinese diver who represented China at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Liang Hongzhi; was a leading official in the Anhui clique of the Beiyang Government, later noted for his role as in the collaborationist Reformed Government of the Republic of China during World War II.

Zheng Yongnian is a Chinese political scientist and political commentator who has studied and written on contemporary China and especially on Chinese politics. Zheng joined the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen in September 2020 and was appointed Director of the Advanced Institute of Global and Contemporary China Studies. He became the founding dean of the university's School of Public...

Ma Zhaoxu is a Chinese diplomat, currently serving as the Executive Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs with the Minister rank since January 2023.

Wang Shiwei was a Chinese journalist and literary writer. He became famous for his contribution to the Chinese history of modern revolution and to Chinese modern literature. Wang joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1926, but later wrote critically of some aspects of the Chinese Communist Revolution. Under order from Mao Zedong, he was expelled from the CCP. Later...

Xue Hanqin is a Chinese jurist at the International Court of Justice. On 29 June 2010, she was elected to fill the vacancy created by Shi Jiuyong's resignation on 28 May 2010. She is one of four female judges serving on the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Xue is the fifth Chinese judge at the ICJ, and the third representing...

Shen Tong is an American impact investor, activist, and writer. He founded business & Impact accelerators TheFutureCo in 2023, FoodFutureCo in 2015, and Food-X in 2014, recognized by Fast Company as one of "The World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2015 in Food". He was a Chinese dissident who was exiled as one of the student leaders in the...

Tian Gang is a Chinese mathematician. He is a professor of mathematics at Peking University and Higgins Professor Emeritus at Princeton University. He is known for contributions to the mathematical fields of Kähler geometry, Gromov-Witten theory, and geometric analysis.

Teng Biao is a Chinese lawyer and political activist. He is a lecturer at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing. He has been a vocal supporter of human rights activists such as Chen Guangcheng and Hu Jia. He has been arrested at least twice, in March 2008 and in February 2011. He was also a visiting...

Zhu Jun is a Chinese host and actor. Zhu was a member of the 11th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, a member of 8th National Committee of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and a member of 10th National Committee of the All-China Youth Federation.

Xiong Yan is a Chinese-American human rights activist, military officer, and Protestant chaplain. He was a dissident involved in 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. Xiong Yan studied at Peking University Law School from 1986 to 1989. He came to the United States of America as a political refugee in 1992, and later became a chaplain in U.S. Army, serving in Iraq....

Qian Zhuangfei was a Chinese doctor, film director and a secret agent for the Chinese Communist Party. After the Kuomintang (KMT) began its suppression of the Communists in 1927, Qian infiltrated the KMT secret service, and in 1931 intercepted a telegram reporting the arrest and defection of the Communist leader Gu Shunzhang. His quick reaction allowed the Communist leadership in...

Lu Kang is a Chinese diplomat currently serving as deputy minister of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party since May 2024. He previously served as the director of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China. His most recent diplomatic post was as the Chinese ambassador...

Peng Zhao is a Chinese-American businessman who is the CEO of market making firm Citadel Securities. Peng Zhao was born in Beijing, China.

Yu Minhong, or Michael Yu is the founder and president of New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc., and a member of the central committee of China Democratic League. As the owner of one of the largest private educational services, Yu is known as the "richest teacher in China", and "Godfather of English Training". On Hurun Report's China Rich List...

Dai Sijie is a Chinese French author and filmmaker living in France since 1984. He writes in French. His first novel, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, written in French, was a best seller and has been translated into more than 25 languages.

Hu Deping is a Chinese politician and former vice chairman of All-China General Chamber of Industry & Commerce, Secretary of National Association of Industry and Commerce (under the United Front Work Department of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party), former chairman of China-Africa Business Council. He is the eldest son of late Chinese Communist Party General Secretary Hu...

Wang Hao is a Chinese chess grandmaster. In November 2009, Wang became the fourth Chinese player to break through the 2700 Elo rating mark.

Mou Zongsan was a Chinese philosopher and translator. He was born in Shandong province and graduated from Peking University. In 1949 he moved to Taiwan, and later Hong Kong, remaining outside of mainland China for the rest of his life. His thought was heavily influenced by Immanuel Kant, whose three Critiques he translated from English, possibly first, into Chinese, and...

Mark Henry Rowswell, CM, known by his Chinese stage name Dashan (Chinese: 大山; pinyin: Dàshān; lit. 'Big Mountain'), is a Canadian performer and television personality who gained prominence in China. He became known in the late 1980s through regular appearances on China Central Television (CCTV), particularly in the traditional comedic art form xiangsheng. Although less publicly visible in Canada, he...

Yuan Hongbing is a Chinese-Australian jurist, novelist, and Chinese dissident.

Wang Juntao is a Chinese dissident and democracy activist accused by the Communist government for being one of the “black hands” behind the Tiananmen Student Movement. He was listed first on the government's “six important criminals” list, and was sentenced to a thirteen-year prison term in 1991 for his alleged work of “conspiring to subvert the government and of counter-revolutionary...

Yu Pun-hoi, commonly known as P H Yu, is a Hong Kong entrepreneur in the information technology, cinema, culture and media industries. He is the Chairman of the Board and largest shareholder of Hong Kong-listed Nan Hai Corporation Limited (0680.HK) and Sino-i Technology Limited (0250.HK). Yu is also the founder and chairman of the Tsinghua University Center for US-China Relations...

Deng Liqun was a Chinese politician and theorist who was one of the leading figures of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) during the 1980s, most well known for his involvement with the party's propaganda work. Deng was born in Guidong County, Hunan province, and joined the CCP in 1936. He came from an intellectual family and joined the party out...

Yu Min was a prominent Chinese nuclear physicist. He was an academic of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), a lead nuclear weapon designer in the Ninth Academy, and a recipient of Two Bombs, One Satellite Achievement Medal. He is remembered as “the father of Chinese Hydrogen Bomb”.

Zhuo Lin was the third and last wife of Deng Xiaoping, former Paramount leader of China.

Yi Gang is a Chinese economist who served as the governor of the People's Bank of China from 2018 to 2023, vice governor of the People's Bank of China from 2007 to 2018, director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange from 2009 to 2015, and assistant governor of the People's Bank of China from 2004 to 2007.

Shen Dehong, best known by the pen name of Mao Dun, was a Chinese novelist, essayist, journalist, playwright, literary and cultural critic. He was highly celebrated for his realist novels, including Midnight, which depicts life in cosmopolitan Shanghai. Mao was one of the founders of the Chinese Communist Party and participated in a number of left-wing cultural movements during the...

Liu Qing or Jean Liu, is a Chinese business executive. She is the President of DiDi, a Chinese mobile transportation platform. She worked at Goldman Sachs Asia for 12 years before joining to DiDi as chief operating officer in July 2014.

Liu Siqi, also known as Liu Songlin (刘松林), was the wife of Mao Anying, the first son of Mao Zedong.

Yiyun Li is a Chinese-born writer and professor who has lived and worked in the United States since entering graduate school. She writes exclusively in English. Her short stories and novels have won several awards, including the PEN/Hemingway Award and Guardian First Book Award for A Thousand Years of Good Prayers, the 2020 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award for Where Reasons...

Natwar Singh was an Indian politician and diplomat of the Indian Foreign Service who later served as India's Minister of External Affairs from May 2004 to December 2005. Having been suspended by the Indian National Congress (INC) in 2006, he joined the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 2008 but was removed from the party within four months.

Yu Jie, is a Chinese-born American writer and Calvinist democracy activist of Sichuan Mongol descent. The bestselling author of more than 30 books, Yu was described by the New York Review of Books in 2012 as "one of China's most prominent essayists and critics". In addition, he has a Revisionist tendency towards the Japanese militarism in World War II.

Deng Rong is a Chinese politician and the third daughter of paramount leader Deng Xiaoping.

Zhang Zhaozhong is a retired Chinese military theorist at the PLA National Defense University. He held the rank of rear admiral in the People's Liberation Army Navy prior to his retirement.

Chen Yu-jen, also known as Jessica Chen, is a Taiwanese politician and lawyer who serves as a Member of the Legislative Yuan. She was previously a member of the Kinmen County Council.

Shen Congwen, formerly romanized as Shen Ts'ung-wen, was a Chinese writer who is considered one of the greatest modern Chinese writers, on par with Lu Xun. Regional culture and identity plays a much bigger role in his writing than that of other major early modern Chinese writers. He was known for combining the vernacular style with classical Chinese writing techniques....

Feng Congde is a Chinese dissident and Republic of China Restoration activist. He was a student leader from Peking University during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, which placed him onto the Chinese government's 21 Most Wanted list. After Tiananmen Massacre, he spent 10 months hiding in various locations in mainland China with the help of a group of Qigong...

Fu Ssu-nien was a Chinese historian, linguist, and writer. He was one of the leaders of the May Fourth Movement in 1919. He was also one of the creators of the Academia Sinica, and was named director of the Institute of History and Philology upon its founding in 1928.

Zhang Lingfu was a high-ranking general of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army. He successfully fought against the Communists and the Imperial Japanese Army. In 1947, his unit was surrounded by Chinese communist forces commanded by Field Marshal Chen Yi and General Su Yu. Zhang was unable to breakout from the communist encirclement because the relief efforts headed by his nationalist...

Xia Baolong is a Chinese politician. Originally from Tianjin, Xia began his political career in the Communist Youth League. He served as the vice mayor of Tianjin, governor and Party Secretary of Zhejiang province. Between 2018 and 2023, he served as a vice chairman of the 13th Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), being its secretary general from 2018 to...

Li Ning is a Chinese billionaire entrepreneur, the founder of the eponymous sportswear company Li-Ning, and retired gymnast of Zhuang ethnicity. He lives in Hong Kong.

Deng Yingchao was a prominent Chinese revolutionary, politician, and women's rights advocate who played a significant role in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) for over six decades. She served as Chairwoman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 1983 to 1988 and was the wife of Zhou Enlai, the first Premier of the People's Republic of China.

Lin Liguo was the son of Chinese marshal Lin Biao. He was the alleged leader of Project 571, a coup plot against Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Zedong.

Michael Alexander Kirkwood Halliday was a British linguist who developed the internationally influential systemic functional linguistics (SFL) model of language. His grammatical descriptions go by the name of systemic functional grammar. Halliday described language as a semiotic system, "not in the sense of a system of signs, but a systemic resource for meaning". For Halliday, language was a "meaning potential";...

Zhu Ziqing, born Zhu Zihua, was a renowned Chinese poet and essayist. Zhu studied at Peking University, and during the May Fourth Movement became one of several pioneers of modernism in China during the 1920s. Zhu was a prolific writer of both prose and poetry, but is best known for essays like "Retreating Figure" (Chinese: 背影; pinyin: Bèiyǐng), and "You....

Mulatu Teshome Wirtu is an Ethiopian politician who was president of Ethiopia from 2013 to 2018.

Clara Chou or Chou Yuh-kow is a Taiwanese journalist, television and radio personality.

Robin Li Yanhong is a Chinese software engineer and billionaire internet entrepreneur who is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Chinese multinational technology company Baidu. As of May 2025, his net worth was estimated at US$5.5 billion by Forbes.

Deng Pufang is a Chinese politician, who is the eldest son of former Chinese paramount leader Deng Xiaoping. He is mostly known for being injured during the Cultural Revolution by the Red Guards and becoming a paraplegic. He has since dedicated his life to improving the rights of people with disabilities.

Zhang Guotao was a Chinese revolutionary who was a founding member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and rival to Mao Zedong. During the 1920s, he studied in the Soviet Union and became a key contact with the Communist International, organizing the CCP labor movement in the First United Front with the Kuomintang. From 1931 to 1932, after the CCP...

Yitang Zhang is a Chinese-American mathematician primarily working on number theory and a professor of mathematics at Sun Yat-sen University.

Justin Yifu Lin is a Chinese economist and professor of economics at Peking University. He served as the chief economist of the World Bank from 2008 to 2012, and was also the World Bank's senior vice president during that time. He has served as a State Council Counsellor of China since September 2013.

Hou Yifan is a Chinese chess grandmaster, four-time Women's World Chess Champion and professor at Peking University. She is the second-highest-rated female player of all time. A chess prodigy, she was the youngest female player ever to qualify for the title of grandmaster (at the age of 14 years, 6 months, 16 days) and the youngest ever to win the...

Wang Zhi'an is a Japan-based Chinese journalist. He was an investigative reporter at China Central Television from 1998 to 2015, after which he was chief investigative reporter at The Beijing News. He was banned from the Chinese internet in 2019. After moving to Japan in 2021, he has worked as an independent reporter. In May 2022, he launched his YouTube...

Eric Li Shufu is a Chinese billionaire entrepreneur. He is the founder and chairman of Geely.

Justin Sun is a Chinese-born Kittitian crypto billionaire and businessman. He is the founder of TRON, a company that develops the TRON blockchain with the associated Tronix (TRX) cryptocurrency token, as well as USDD, a stablecoin issued by TRON DAO Reserve. Sun is also the owner of Rainberry (formerly BitTorrent Inc.), which developed the BitTorrent protocol and under Sun's leadership...

Hu Chunhua is a Chinese politician. Hu currently serves as a Vice Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference since 2023. From 2012 to 2022, Hu served as a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party. He also served as Vice Premier of China from 2018 to 2023.

Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, The Princess Royal is a member of the Thai royal family. She is the second daughter of King Bhumibol Adulyadej (Rama IX) and Queen Sirikit, and the younger sister of King Vajiralongkorn (Rama X).

Wang Dan is a Chinese political activist and history scholar. He rose to prominence while studying at Peking University as one of the student leaders in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, after which he was twice jailed by the Chinese government. He went into exile in the United States in 1998 and, after earning a PhD from Harvard University,...

Ding Liren is a Chinese chess grandmaster who was the 17th World Chess Champion from 2023–24. He is a three-time Chinese Chess Champion and was part of the Chinese teams that won the Chess Olympiads in 2014 and 2018. Ding is the first Chinese player ever to play in a Candidates Tournament and first Chinese player to pass the 2800...

Zhao Leji is a Chinese politician who is the current chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress and the third-ranking member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), behind CCP general secretary and Premier.

Li Keqiang was a Chinese politician and economist who served as Premier of China from 2013 to 2023 and was the second-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s Politburo Standing Committee from 2012 to 2022.

Han Kuo-yu, also known by his English name Daniel Han, is a Taiwanese politician and retired Republic of China Army officer who has served as the president of the Legislative Yuan since 2024.

Renhō Saitō, known mononymously as Renhō, is a Japanese politician and former journalist who has served as a member of the House of Councillors from 2004 to 2024, and again since 2025. She was the leader of the now-defunct major opposition party, the Democratic Party from 2016 to 2017. Renhō was a candidate for the 2024 Tokyo gubernatorial election with...

Timothy Franz Geithner is an American former central banker who served as the 75th United States secretary of the treasury under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. He was the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 2003 to 2009, following service in the Clinton administration. Since March 2014, he has served as president and chairman...

Chai Ling is a Chinese-American psychologist. She rose to prominence while studying at Peking University as one of the leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. After moving to the US, she founded All Girls Allowed, an organization dedicated to ending China's one-child policy, and Jenzabar, an enterprise resource planning software firm for educational institutions.

Lin Zhao, born Peng Lingzhao (彭令昭), was a prominent Chinese dissident who was imprisoned and later executed by gunshot by the People's Republic of China during the Cultural Revolution for her criticism of Mao Zedong's policies. She is widely considered to be a martyr and exemplar for Chinese and other Christians, like the Chinese church leader and teacher Watchman Nee.

Tu Youyou is a Nobel Prize-winning malariologist and pharmaceutical chemist and member of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences. She received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2015 for her discovery and development of artemisinin and related compounds, after reading an Eastern Jin Dynasty medical treatise by Ge Hong discussing it. Tu pursued her education in pharmaceutical...

Li Zhaoxing is a Chinese diplomat and politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of China from 2003 to 2007. He previously served as Ambassador of China to the United States from 1998 to 2001, Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations from 1993 to 1995, and deputy director and director of information department at Ministry of Foreign...

Fu Xiaotian is a Chinese news correspondent. Fu joined Phoenix Television’s London bureau in 2009 and gained prominence for her wartime reporting from Libya in 2011. After her transfer to Phoenix TV's Hong Kong headquarters, she became known as the host of Talk with World Leaders. In June 2023, she disappeared from public view amid a political scandal involving Qin...

Zhang Luyi, also known as Edward Zhang, is a Chinese actor and director.

Meng Hongwei is a former Chinese politician and police officer who was the president of Interpol from 2016 to 2018. He also served as vice-minister of Public Security in China from 2004 to 2018. Meng purportedly resigned in absentia in October 2018 via Chinese officials after he was secretly detained and accused of taking bribes by Chinese anti-corruption authorities. On...

Peng Qinghua is a Chinese politician who is currently a vice chairperson of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. He served as Party Secretary of Sichuan from March 2018 to April 2022, and was formerly the director of the Hong Kong Liaison Office from 2009 to 2012 and the Party Secretary of Guangxi from 2012 to 2018.

Wang Youcai is a Chinese dissident and was one of the prominent student leaders in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. At the time he was graduate student at the Peking University, he was arrested in 1989 and sentenced to four years in 1991 for "conspiring to overthrow the Government of China".

Fang Lizhi was a Chinese astrophysicist, vice-president of the University of Science and Technology of China, and activist whose liberal ideas inspired the pro-democracy student movement of 1986–87 and, finally, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Fang was considered as one of the leaders of the New Enlightenment in the 1980s. Because of his activism, he was expelled from the...

Xu Qin is a Chinese politician, and the current Party Secretary of Heilongjiang. Previously he had served as governor of Hebei, and before that, mayor, then Party Secretary of Shenzhen, China's most prominent special economic zone.

Cheng Chung-tai is a Hong Kong academic, social activist, and politician. After winning a seat in the New Territories West constituency in the 2016 legislative election, he took over from Wong Yeung-tat as chairman of Civic Passion until the dissolution in 2021.

Huang Jing, born Yu Qiwei (Chinese: 俞启威; Wade–Giles: Yü Ch'i-wei), was a Chinese Communist revolutionary and politician who served as Mayor and Communist Party Chief of Tianjin municipality, Minister of the First Ministry of Machine Building, and Chairman of the National Technological Commission. He was an ex-husband of Jiang Qing, who later married Mao Zedong, and the father of Yu...

Xu Zhiyong is a Chinese civil rights activist and formerly a lecturer at the Beijing University of Post and Telecommunications. He was one of the founders of the NGO Open Constitution Initiative and an active rights lawyer in China who campaigned against corruption and helped those underprivileged. He is the main founder and icon of the New Citizens' Movement in...

Yi Huiman is a Chinese banker who served as chairman of the China Securities Regulatory Commission from 2019 to 2024. He is the former chairman of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China.

Xia Yeliang is a former associate professor of economics at Peking University. He was one of the early drafters and signers of Charter 08 in 2008. In June 2013, he was given notice by a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official at the School of Economics that a faculty vote regarding termination of his position at the university was scheduled. He...

Tang Jiaxuan is a Chinese diplomat and politician who was foreign minister of the People's Republic of China from 1998–2003.

Li Yuanchao is a retired Chinese politician. He was the Vice President of China from 2013 to 2018 and the Honorary President of the Red Cross Society of China. He was a member of the Secretariat of the Chinese Communist Party and head of the Organization Department between 2007 and 2012. From 2002 to 2007, Li served as the Chinese...

Chen Gang is a Chinese composer best known for his work Butterfly Lovers' Violin Concerto. He is the son of songwriter Chen Gexin. Chen Gang started to learn piano and composition from his father and music teachers from a young age.

Li Yinhe is a Chinese sociologist, sexologist, and activist for LGBT rights in China. Her main academic interests have been sexual norms in contemporary China, homosexuality, diverse sexual behaviors including sadomasochism, and women's studies.

Yang Chen-Ning also known as C.N. Yang and Franklin Yang, was a Chinese-American theoretical physicist who made significant contributions to statistical mechanics, integrable systems, gauge theory, particle physics and condensed matter physics.

Tsung-Dao Lee was a Chinese-American physicist known for his work on parity violation, the Lee–Yang theorem, particle physics, relativistic heavy ion (RHIC) physics, nontopological solitons, and soliton stars. He was a university professor emeritus at Columbia University in New York City, where he taught from 1953 until his retirement in 2012.

Xu Zhimo was a Chinese poet. Best known for his work in modern Chinese poetry, he strove to loosen Chinese poetry from its traditional forms, incorporating influences from Western poetry and writing in vernacular Chinese. He died in a plane crash at age 34.

Li Na is a Chinese former professional tennis player. She was ranked world No. 2 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association. Li won nine WTA Tour-level singles titles, including two majors at the 2011 French Open and 2014 Australian Open. Those victories made her the first major singles champion born in Asia, male or female. She was also...

Feng Youlan was a Chinese philosopher, historian, and writer who was instrumental for reintroducing the study of Chinese philosophy in the modern era. The name he published under in English was 'Fung Yu-lan,' as used in the Bodde translation of A History of Chinese Philosophy. This earlier spelling also occurs in philosophical discussions, see for example the work of Wing-tsit...

Zhong Nanshan is a Chinese pulmonologist. He was president of the Chinese Medical Association from 2005 to 2009 and is currently the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Thoracic Disease. Zhong was bestowed the Medal of the Republic, the highest honorary medal of the People's Republic of China, in August 2020.

Alvin Yeung Ngok-kiu is a Hong Kong barrister and politician. He was formerly the leader of the Civic Party and a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, representing New Territories East after winning the 2016 by-election. On 11 November 2020, Yeung was disqualified from the Legislative Council, along with three other lawmakers of the pan-democratic camp, by the...

Sam Hou Fai is a Macau politician and former judge who is currently the Chief Executive of Macau since 2024 and previously served as the 1st President of the Court of Final Appeal of Macau.

François Jullien is a French philosopher, Hellenist, and sinologist.