After earning her PhD, Zhao earned a position at the
University of California, San Diego in 1997. She joined SFU as a tenure-tracked assistant professor in Communication and Media Studies. As an associate professor of communications at SFU, Zhao was appointed a Tier 2
Canada Research Chair in the political economy of global communication in 2005. As a result of her research, she also earned the Chang-Jiang Scholar Award from the People's Republic of China, Ministry of Education in 2009. The next year, she was renewed as a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair and by 2011 was appointed to Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in the Political Economy of Global Communication. While teaching at SFU, Zhao created the Global Communication Double MA Degree program, which would win the 2014 gold prize in the Educational Excellence Award category at the Canada-China Business Council's 4th Canada-China Business Excellence Awards. In 2013, she received SFU's C. Edwin Baker Award for "the Advancement of Scholarship on Media, Markets and Democracy." She was also appointed a Senior Fellow at the
Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. Two years later, Zhao was the recipient of the 2015 Award for Leadership. That same year, she established The Heyang Rural Research Institute to study rural Chinese communities. In 2019, Zhao was elected a
Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. == Works ==