The 22-year-old striker was bought by Baggies owner Guochuan Lai for £6million in the summer of 2017 from Dutch side Vitesse Arnhem.

However, he has now left the club having never played a minute.

Unable to get a work permit in England, Zhang spent a season on loan at Bundesliga club Werder Bremen, which was initially supposed to be a two-season loan before the German side cut it short.

He then joined Eredivisie club ADO Den Haag on a season-long loan, and scored five goals in pre-season last summer.

But injury at the Asian Games with the China Olympic team dented his progress and he only made six appearances off the bench for Den Haag before that loan was also cut short.

The Baggies have now sold Zhang to Beijing Sinobo Guoan, who finished fourth in the Chinese Super League last year.

It’s understood Lai funded the £6million transfer and also paid for Zhang’s wages while he was on Albion’s books.

It’s not known if the Albion owner has recuperated his money from the sale.

Lai has not funded any other transfers since his £200m takeover in 2016, and the Baggies took out a bank loan in January in order to do more business.