Zhang Wenhai (张文海) started his political career in Northeast China, where he served consecutively as mayor of Changchun (1950), Jilin City (1958), vice-governor of Jilin Province (1959) and secretary of the Jilin Party Committee (1960). According to Chinese sources, he later became one of the secretaries of Liu Shaoqi.

A record revealing the criminal deeds of the counter-revolutionary revisionist and counter-revolutionary Zhang Wenhai, 1966

Zhang was branded as a ‘black commander’ in the opening days of the Cultural Revolution and purged in March 1967. Shortly thereafter, he disappeared and is presumed dead.