kong jie turned professional in 1994 at the age of 12. he was promoted to 7-dan after eight years in 2001. in 2004 he was sent into the teda cup as china's representative against lee chang-ho and yoda norimoto. kong jie is china's 29th professional 9-dan, doing so by being runner-up in the 13th samsung cup, and entering the finals of the asian tv cup for the first time. in 2009, kong jie achieved a major international breakthrough by winning the asian tv cup—defeating korea's top three players of lee sedol, lee chang-ho and kang dongyun respectively. his win marked the end of several years of poor personal international results. later in the year, kong jie followed up by reaching the semi-finals of the 14th samsung cup and won the title by defeating his two compatriots gu li and qiu jun.