Not for the first time, Mr Zhang looks like hitting his market ahead of the curve.
Mr Zhang, its colourful boss, has turned the company around by brute force and imagination.
Yang Mianmian, Mr Zhang's deputy, says that the more successful Haier gets, the more independence it wins.
The news agency added that Mr Zhang's Los Angeles-based agent had not responded to a request for comment.
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Mr Zhang himself was introduced to mountaineering two years ago by a pal who owns a real estate firm.
Mr Zhang drives his 13, 000 employees with a mixture of reward and fear.
Mr Zhang, 61, directed some of China's most successful modern martial arts films, including Hero and House of Flying Daggers.
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Yet Mr Zhang has just lost a long fight to reward his managers with shares via a Hong Kong listing.
And a further 129 companies have beaten a path to Mr Zhang's door this year, begging to be allowed entry.
Mr Zhang refused to talk to your correspondent and yelled at him for trying to interview a villager on the street.
Mr Zhang added that the moves by China's central bank to ease its policies had also contributed to the pick-up in prices.
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The good news is that Mr Zhang boasts a degree in economics.
Mr Zhang became acting president of the AFC after his predecessor, Mohammed Bin Hamman, was given a lifetime ban by Fifa for corruption and bribery.
In his opening remarks, Mr Zhang, who is from China, said it was time to "admit that match-fixing is a real danger to football's ethical values and needs to be eliminated to preserve the sanctity of the sport".
Mr. Zhang said he expects the number to grow but declined to give targets.
If so, then why did all his reference letters call him Mr. Zhang, not Dr. Zhang?
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Mr. Zhang and I were best friends, husband and wife, and the parents of two kids for 18 years.
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Mr. Zhang, Ms. Wu's attorney, contended that she borrowed the money from investor friends and not the general public.
Massive online interest was a major factor in pushing local authorities to investigate the case, according to Mr. Zhang, the lawyer.
"Big developers like Greenland and China Vanke have wider brand recognition compared to the smaller firms and foreign firms, " said Mr. Zhang.
But last summer, fed up with the 25-hour train trip to see his family, Mr. Zhang moved to Chongqing and joined Quanta.
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Mr. Zhang, who said the pictures weren't used as evidence during the trial, said she didn't use investor funds to make personal purchases.
Mr. Zhang says for most clients it is still cheaper to reduce risk by selling stocks, because they don't have to pay for insurance.
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Mr. Zhang's lighter sentence was also expected because prosecutors said he was an accomplice, and Ms. Gu the main culprit, according observers during the trial.
Mr. Zhang said he hadn't been allowed to see Ms. Feng in the hospital and was unable to reach her or her husband by phone on Friday.
But his take-home pay has fallen by nearly a third and the thought that his brother may have to drop out of school so he can help the family gnaws at Mr. Zhang.
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Mr. Zhang said he is aware of how Japanese firms lost large sums on high-profile foreign investments such as Rockefeller Center and Pebble Beach Golf Course in the late 1980s and notes that the failures had to do the volatility of the yen and Japan's monetary policy.
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