Hua Liming, the former ambassador to Iran, was one of the first graduates of Peking University's Persian major, and much of his 40-year diplomatic career was related to Iran. To this day, he can still be seen in diplomatic forums related to Iran at home.
Hua Liming served more than a dozen times as Premier Zhou Enlai's Persian translator. The experience of working next to Premier Zhou deeply affected Hua Liming. The reason why Hua Liming, who originally chose to study English, is related to Iran is also directly related to Premier Zhou.
Take on the big picture
In 1957, due to the needs of diplomatic work, the Persian language major of Peking University was founded with the support of Premier Zhou and Professor Ji Xianlin, and the trainees recruited in the first year were all serving cadres. In 1958, Hua Liming, who was already a sophomore in English at the Beijing Chinese College, and six other people were selected to major in Persian at Peking University, and since then they have formed an indissoluble relationship with the country of Iran. When Hua Liming, who was old, talked about this encounter, he still described it as unexpected.
Persian culture and Persian have an important influence in the Middle East, which is why Ji Xianlin advocated the opening of Persian majors at Peking University. Hua Liming's first stop after entering the Foreign Ministry in 1963 was not Iran, but Afghanistan. "Persian is spoken in the north of Afghanistan and Pashto is spoken in the south. The upper royals at that time spoke mainly Persian. Hua Liming said.
In September 1966, Hua Liming temporarily received an important task. When Premier Zhou visited Romania via Afghanistan, Prince Sultan, the cousin of King Zahir of Afghanistan, went to greet him, and the Embassy in Afghanistan sent Hua Liming to act as an interpreter. Translating for Premier Zhou for the first time, Hua Liming was both surprised and nervous.
"When the flight flew inside Afghanistan, I sat side by side with Premier Zhou, and Ambassador Chen Feng and Prince Sultan in Afghanistan sat side by side. Ambassador Chen may be casual, and Premier Zhou whispered to him, 'You sit a little to the side, Prince Sultan is sitting too crowded, it may not be comfortable.' This detail when he first translated for Premier Zhou made Hua Liming remember it vividly, "It is really not simple for a prime minister of a country to notice such a small thing!" ”
Six years later, on another urgent assignment as an interpreter for Premier Zhou, Hua Liming left Shigan School in Lüliang, Shanxi, to return to Beijing. "We were all ready to stay there for the rest of our lives!"
Premier Zhou was the founder and founder of New China's diplomatic cause, working next to Premier Zhou, and Hua Liming lamented that the premier's diplomatic concept and work style had a profound impact on young diplomats like him at that time.
"Premier Zhou often works until late at night, and we are often called over at night to report on our work. He is very strict about his work, and we must have a clear understanding of the work of our respective supervisors. At that time, there were no mobile phones, and we all carried a small notebook with us, densely remembering our work. As soon as the Prime Minister said he wanted to report, we went over with the little ben. Sometimes the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is asked to say, and sometimes it is directly named and named for us translators to answer. Once the answer is not answered, the prime minister will criticize it harshly. Hua Liming recalled.
Melt the solid ice
The last time he translated for Premier Zhou, Hua Liming still remembers it vividly. It was 1975, and in the face of an invitation from an Iranian guest, Premier Zhou, who was already very weak, pointed to the young diplomats present and said, "I can't go, and if I want to go in the future, I can only go to these young people." ”
Two years later, Hua Liming was indeed stationed in Iran as Premier Zhou said. He personally experienced the earth-shattering Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979, became the ambassador to Iran in 1991, accompanied the Iranian president on two visits to China, and did a lot of work for the development of Sino-Iranian friendly relations.
After completing the work of ambassador to Iran, the second stop of Hua Liming's career was the United Arab Emirates on the other side of the Persian Gulf. Not only is the UAE's national conditions very different from those of Iran, but the two countries have long been hostile to each other. This has become another "unexpected" in Hua Liming's diplomatic experience.
In the face of Hua Liming, a Chinese ambassador who has been stationed in Iran for a long time and has outstanding performance during his tenure, the UAE side initially had a very cold attitude. Coupled with Lee Teng-hui's visit to the UNITED Arab Emirates in April 1995, before LiMing's appointment in China, relations between China and the United Arab Emirates also reached an all-time low. "When I first went, I sat on the cold bench for half a year."
Hua Liming was not content to sit on the cold bench. "Emiratis are very humane, and the families of the chiefs dominate national politics." He used the flexible skills of a senior diplomat to start from economic, cultural and other aspects, especially the oil trade, the economic lifeblood of the UAE, and through unremitting efforts, he established a very friendly relationship with the members of the UAE royal family. "By the time I left office, Sino-Arab relations had already begun to take off." Hua Liming said.
On his parting occasion, UAE President Zayed awarded him the Order of Independence of the First Class. Hua Liming became the first Chinese ambassador to receive this honor after the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 1984.
The United States made concessions
In the early 1990s, China's diplomacy was facing a grim situation. In August 1990, Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait. The United States is ready to send troops to intervene, and if it wants to be famous, it must have the authorization of the United Nations Security Council. At that time, Hua Liming was serving as deputy director general of the Department of West Asia and North Africa of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in charge of Gulf, Iran and Turkey affairs, "China is the key vote." China is in favor of condemning or even sanctioning Iraq, but not of the United Nations authorizing the use of force. The United States is very worried about the rejection of the U.N. mandate by China. Foreign Minister Qian Qichen seized the opportunity of the Gulf crisis and used superb diplomatic art to force the United States to make concessions in its relations with China. ”
The world is concerned about how China will choose to authorize the use of force against Iraq. In September of that year, the United Nations General Assembly was convened, and Qian Qichen delivered a clear message to the West: "It is not easy for China to vote in favor of the Security Council's resolutions on sanctions against Iraq. ”
Subsequently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that Qian Qichen would visit the Middle East in November. The US side quickly "followed up" and released the message that Secretary of State Baker will visit the Middle East on November 3, hoping that the foreign ministers of China and the United States will meet in Cairo on the 6th to discuss the Gulf crisis. Hua Liming said: "Foreign Minister Qian has adapted to the situation, adjusted the order of his visits, and changed the first stop to the Middle East on November 6 to Egypt. In this way, the Foreign Ministers of China and the United States had a 'chance encounter' at the Cairo airport and had a long talk. ”
Immediately afterward, the US side further invited Qian Qichen to visit the United States officially during their proposal for a UNITED Nations mandate. Hua Liming went to the airport to send off Qian Qichen, but Qian Qichen did not answer the questions of the large number of foreign reporters in front of him, and the reporter turned to the question to the side of Hua Liming: When Foreign Minister Qian went to New York this time, what vote will he vote on the proposal authorized by the United Nations to use force against Iraq? "I told them that this ticket was in the pocket of our foreign minister, and we didn't know what it was." Hua Liming said.
Unexpectedly, the Americans rose to the asking price after Qian Qichen arrived in New York, linked the arrangement of visiting the United States to the vote, and tried to force China to vote in favor. Under such circumstances, Qian Qichen argued on the basis of reason, and his principled stand did not give in, and finally abstained on behalf of China.
The US side went against the grain and found an excuse to cancel Qian Qichen's meeting with US President Bush Sr. Hua Liming said that at the critical moment, Qian Qichen took a different path and asked Zhu Qizhen, the ambassador to the United States, to return to Washington overnight to talk to White House national security adviser Scowcroft. At 6 a.m., Scowcroft replied: Foreign Minister Qian is welcome to visit Washington as planned, and President Bush is looking forward to meeting him.
"In this way, China's diplomacy has once again crossed a terrifying wave, and diplomats represented by Foreign Minister Qian Qichen have shown outstanding boldness, determination, and Chinese wisdom." Hua Liming said.
Huge changes
Last year marked the 40th anniversary of China's reform and opening up, and Iran also held a commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution in February this year. In the early years, Iranian guests visited China and witnessed the tremendous changes brought by reform and opening up to China, and they were amazed in front of The Dawn of China.
Born in 1939, Hua Liming experienced the era of China's backwardness and beatings. His diplomatic career also began in China's relatively poor years. "The first time I went to Iran was in 1973. In Tehran, I saw a brilliant display of lights, when there were 2 million cars in Tehran. It can be said that the first 'modernization' I saw was in Iran. But now, Iranians are surprised by China's development achievements. ”
Biography
Hua Liming
Born in Shanghai in 1939. He graduated from Peking University in 1963 and joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the same year. He was Chinese Ambassador to Iran from 1991 to 1995, Chinese Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates from 1995 to 1998, and Chinese Ambassador to the Netherlands and Permanent Representative of China to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons from 1998 to 2001. He is a member of the Advisory Committee on Public Diplomacy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a Distinguished Research Fellow of the China Institute of International Studies.
Hua Liming: I serve as an interpreter for Premier Zhou
Source Beijing Daily
Reporter Bai Bo
Process Editor Wang Mengying
![What was Afghanistan like half a century ago? Hua Liming, an 82-year-old diplomat, recalls King Zahir[fig]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAP///wAAACwAAAAAAQABAAACAkQBADs=)