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While indifferent to the election, the 26-year-old salesman based in Fujian's capital Fuzhou is firm that Taiwanese independence should not be allowed at any cost.
"I don't care at all about the election in Taiwan," Zhang said of the showdown between incumbent President Chen Shui-bian of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Kuomintang (KMT) challenger Lien Chan.
"It's like a drama ... how the drama began and how it will be performed has nothing to do with me," Zhang said.
But, "No matter how, as a Chinese, I wish for the unification and the integrity of Chinese territory," Zhang said, echoing a majority sentiment among the country's 1.3 billion people.
For Zhang, like many striving to get ahead in a rapidly modernising China which has embraced a competitive market economy, issues even of the utmost sensitivity such as Taiwan and China's military might in Fujian have little bearing on daily life.
"I used to talk a lot with my college friends about the scandals among Taiwan authorities and the status quo between the two sides, and I also took some courses," Zhang said.
"Now ... everybody is busy with their jobs. It has all been swamped by work and everyday life."
Fuzhou's bustling restaurants, shopping centres and modern high-rises are home to about five million people, three People's Liberation Army (PLA) air force bases and a naval port in neighbouring Mawei, about 30 minutes drive from the city.
Despite the heavy military presence, the only reminder of the hostile cross-straits standoff that began after the communists forced the defeated nationalist army to flee the mainland in 1949 is the occasional PLA soldier enjoying furlough.
Since the end of the civil war both sides have been ruled by separate rival governments, with China vowing to reclaim the island of nearly 23 million residents by force if it declares independence.
Like Zhang, 22-year-old Ling Qing has been taught to the believe that the de facto nation state of Taiwan is an inalienable part of mainland territory, destined to return to the motherland like Hong Kong and Macau.
Ling said he would be seriously worried should the island declare independence. "That's related to the honor of the nation," he said.
"Psychologically, I couldn't bear to think of Taiwan as independent, after all China is becoming more powerful," said the Fuzhou University graduate in English studies.
It is these sort of nationalistic attitudes that worry many security analysts.
In the face of its growing economic and military muscle, China not only fancies itself a burgeoning world power but the ruling Communist Party has bet much of its legitimacy on the Taiwan issue.
For China's leadership the re-integration of Taiwan is about national dignity and the survival of the regime, said Ezra Vogel, director of the Fairbank Center for East Asia Research at Harvard University.
"It has staked so much on Taiwan -- it's so axiomatic," said Vogel, adding that China had to have a credible military force to deter Taiwan from proclaiming self-rule.
Wu Nengyuan, director of the Institute of Modern Taiwan Studies of the Fujian Academy of Social Sciences, agreed that while war would be the worst case scenario, the growing deployment of missiles in Fujian were a necessary strategy.
"The DPP won't dare to announce independence only because the mainland has those missiles and will not give up (the threat) of using military force," Wu said.
Potential Taiwanese secession could also set a dangerous precedent for China's other politically unstable territories such as Tibet and northwestern Xinjiang.
"The threat of dissolution in China is very real in the Muslim areas, like Xinjiang or other minority areas such as Tibet," said Charles Meconis, research director at Seattle-based Institute for Global Securities Studies.
"A breakaway Taiwan is seen as the worst of a possible domino-effect that could tear China apart," Meconis said, adding that if this were to happen, the Chinese leadership would react irrationally.
"This goes beyond real politik, it's wrapped up with survival," he said.
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