In the past month, a number of diplomats from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs have taken up new posts, including a number of vice-ministerial-level leaders.
According to the official website of the Chinese Embassy in India, on May 10, Xu Feihong, the new ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to the Republic of India, arrived in New Delhi to take up his new post. This information shows that Xu Feihong has been appointed as China's ambassador to India.
According to public information, Xu Feihong, male, Han nationality, born in May 1964, from Dongyang, Zhejiang, bachelor of law, member of the Communist Party of China.
Xu Feihong has served in the Information Department, the Department of Cadres, and the Department of European Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has also served as China's ambassador to Afghanistan and China's ambassador to Romania. In 2018, he was appointed as the Director of the Service Center for Organs and Overseas Institutions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in 2021, he was appointed as a member of the Party Committee and Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Previously, Sun Weidong served as China's ambassador to India, a post he took up in 2019 and stepped down from his post in October 2022, before becoming vice foreign minister. Since then, China's ambassador to India has been vacant for 19 months, until Xu Feihong took up his new post as assistant foreign minister.
Zhao Zhiyuan profile picture
Previously, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had three assistant ministers, namely Hua Chunying, Miao Deyu, and Xu Feihong. The day before Xu Feihong officially took office, according to the website of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security on May 9, the State Council appointed and dismissed state workers and appointed Zhao Zhiyuan as assistant minister of foreign affairs.
The administrative level of the assistant minister of foreign affairs is generally at the level of director or director, and he is a cadre in the central management department, and is a member of the party committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs according to the usual practice, assisting the minister or vice minister in taking charge of specific business work, and belongs to the ministry leader.
According to public information, Zhao Zhiyuan, male, Han nationality, born in April 1968, from Penglai, Shandong, joined the Communist Party of China in November 1992, started working in July 1990, on-the-job graduate student, doctor of management.
Zhao Zhiyuan has worked in Shandong Province for a long time. He has successively served as Deputy Secretary of the Zhucheng Municipal Party Committee of Shandong Province, Deputy Secretary and Mayor of Gaomi Municipal Party Committee, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Assistant Mayor of Weifang Municipal Government, Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Director of the Management Committee of Weifang High-tech Industrial Development Zone, Member of the Standing Committee of the Weifang Municipal Party Committee, Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Director of the Management Committee of Weifang High-tech Industrial Development Zone.
In 2013, Zhao Zhiyuan served as the leader of the seventh batch of cadres in Shandong Province to aid Tibet, and served as the deputy secretary of the Tibet Shigatse Prefectural Committee and the executive deputy commissioner of the administrative department. In 2016, he was transferred back to Shandong, and in 2019 he was elected mayor of Dongying. In 2020, he entered the diplomatic service for the first time when he was transferred from the mayor of Dongying to the post of Chinese ambassador to Ethiopia. The media called him a rare diplomat who was "halfway home".
According to the official website of the Chinese Embassy in Ethiopia, on the evening of May 5 this year, Ambassador Zhao Zhiyuan left his post and returned to China, and then succeeded Xu Feihong as a member of the Party Committee and assistant minister of the Foreign Affairs Office.
Fu Cong profile picture
Previously, according to the WeChat official account of the "China International Development Cooperation Agency", on April 12, Director Luo Zhaohui met with Ambassador Fu Cong, Permanent Representative Designate to the United Nations. According to the news, Fu Cong, who previously served as the head of the Chinese mission to the EU and ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary, was appointed as China's permanent representative to the United Nations in April.
On the morning of May 10, at the request of many countries, the 10th emergency special session of the United Nations General Assembly was resumed. The meeting considered the issue of admitting Palestine as a new Member of the United Nations and adopted a resolution granting more rights to Palestine. Fu Cong, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, said in his speech after the vote that China welcomes this historic resolution.
According to public information, Fu Cong, male, Han nationality, born in June 1965, bachelor of law, member of the Communist Party of China, he served as the coordinator of network affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, deputy permanent representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary for disarmament affairs, etc., and served as the director of the Department of Arms Control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2018. In 2022, he succeeded Zhang Ming as Head of Mission and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the European Union, a position he held until his current appointment at the United Nations.
On October 25, 1971, the United Nations General Assembly restored the legitimate rights of the People's Republic of China. On 2 November, the Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations was established. According to the official website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there are currently 14 permanent representatives of China to the United Nations, namely: Huang Hua, Chen Chu, Ling Qing, Li Luye, Li Daoyu, Li Zhaoxing, Qin Huasun, Wang Yingfan, Wang Guangya, Zhang Yesui, Li Baodong, Liu Jieyi, Ma Zhaoxu and Zhang Jun.
Zhang Jun profile picture
Ambassador Zhang Jun, who previously served as China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, was born in August 1960 in Jilin Province. Zhang Jun has served as Deputy Director-General of the Department of International Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Secretary of the General Office of the State Council, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People's Republic of China to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Permanent Representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Director General of the Department of International Economy and Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and has been China's Permanent Representative and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Nations since 2019.
On April 30, the official website of the Boao Forum for Asia announced that recently, the Board of Directors of the Boao Forum for Asia passed a resolution to appoint Mr. Zhang Jun as the Secretary-General of the Boao Forum for Asia. On behalf of the Council, Ban Ki-moon, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Boao Forum for Asia, congratulated and welcomed Secretary-General Zhang Jun to his new position. The news shows that Zhang Jun, who has returned to China after leaving office, has replaced Li Baodong as secretary general of the Boao Forum for Asia.
Li Baodong was born in April 1955 in Beijing. Li Baodong served as Counselor, Deputy Director-General and Director General of the Department of International Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the Republic of Zambia, Permanent Representative and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland, Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, and was appointed Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2013, in charge of international organizations and conferences, international economy and arms control affairs. In April 2018, he was appointed Secretary-General of the Boao Forum for Asia, and in May of the same year, he stepped down as Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Chen Xiaodong profile picture
In addition, in March this year, Chen Xiaodong left his post as Chinese ambassador to South Africa and became vice minister of foreign affairs.
Chen Xiaodong, male, Han nationality, born in December 1965, from Lujiang, Anhui Province, master of business administration, member of the Communist Party of China. Chen Xiaodong has served as China's ambassador to Iraq, minister to the United Kingdom, director of the Department of West Asia and North Africa of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and ambassador to Singapore. In 2017, he was appointed Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, in charge of West Asia and North Africa, Africa, foreign security affairs, and archives. In September 2020, Chen Xiaodong became China's sixth ambassador to South Africa, leaving his post and returning to China in March this year.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs currently has 17 ambassadors at the vice-ministerial level. China's ambassadors to the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Germany, Japan, India, Brazil, South Africa, Egypt and other countries, as well as representatives to international organizations such as the United Nations Headquarters in New York, the United Nations Office at Geneva, the European Union, and the WTO, as well as commissioners in Hong Kong and Macao, are all diplomatic officials at the level of vice ministers.
After Xu Feihong, Fu Cong and Chen Xiaodong took up their new posts, the current head of mission to the European Union, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, and ambassador to South Africa are temporarily vacant. Among the vice-ministerial-level ambassadors, Wu Ken, the Chinese ambassador to Germany, was born in January 1961 and is over 63 years old. He has been the Chinese Ambassador to Germany for more than four years since March 2019.
Chang Hua profile picture
At the same time, a number of foreign envoys have recently been adjusted.
According to the official WeChat public account of the Chinese Embassy in Saudi Arabia, on the morning of May 10, the new ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Chang Hua, arrived in Riyadh. Representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia and key diplomats of the embassy greeted them at the airport.
According to public information, Chang Hua, male, was born in Beijing in March 1966 and graduated from university. After joining the diplomatic service in 1987, he worked in the Department of West Asia and North Africa of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, as well as in several Chinese embassies and consulates in the Middle East. In October 2012, he was appointed Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Yemen, and in December 2014, he was transferred to the post of Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the United Arab Emirates. In 2016, he returned to China to serve as the director of the Foreign Affairs Administration of the Central Foreign Affairs Office, and in June 2019, he was re-appointed as the new ambassador to Iran, a position he held in Saudi Arabia.
As previously reported, on April 18, Liu Weimin, the Chinese ambassador to the Kingdom of Tonga, arrived in Tonga to take up his new post.
Liu Weimin, male, born in August 1968, from Fujian Province, graduated from university. Liu Weimin has served as Deputy Director and Director of the Department of Western European Affairs (Department of European Affairs) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom, Counsellor and Spokesperson of the Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Minister Counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in the United States, Deputy Director General of the Department of European Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Director General of the Department of International Cooperation and Rescue of the Ministry of Emergency Management. In September 2011, Liu Weimin served as the 26th spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Editor: Xiao Ran