Zulhayat Ismail

Zulhayat Ismail (; born September 1977) is a Chinese university administrator and politician of Uyghur ethnicity, currently serving as Party Branch Secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Ecology and Environment Department. She was director of the Education Department of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region from March 2023 to October 2024.

She is a representative of the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party and an alternate of the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party.

Early life and education Zulhayat Ismail was born in Ürümqi, Xinjiang, in September 1977. In 2008 she graduated from Peking University with a Ph.D. in sociology. From January 2010 to November 2012, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Xinjiang University.

Career She began her political career in June 2014, when she was appointed deputy director of the Middle School and University Offices of the School Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League of China.

She has served as vice president of Xinjiang University, as well as deputy party secretary and dean of the School of Marxism at Xinjiang University. She was deputy party secretary and vice president of Kashi University in September 2022 and subsequently director of the Education Department of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in March 2023.

In October 2024, she was appointed Party Branch Secretary of the Jiangsu Provincial Ecology and Environment Department.