Wu Zhaohua: Difference between revisions

He was initially assigned as an English translator at the Chinese embassy in the {{W|United Kingdom}} and would spend most of his career focusing on Western Europe or North America. Wu had also been given the task of analysing the political situation in the country. In 1975, Wu received a new assignment as a translator at the embassy in [[Brazoria]]. When he returning to China in 1979, Wu became a secretary at the Western European Bureau of the Foreign Office. He was also promoted to interpreter first class and translated during meetings between Chinese and English-speaking foreign politicians and diplomats.  

In 1982 he was sent to China's permanent mission to the [[League of Nations]] in {{W|Geneva}} as a translator. In 1985 Wu received his first major post when he became China's Deputy Permanent Representative to the LN, which he held until 1989. He returned and worked at the central office of the Foreign Ministry in Beijing for several years, and in autumn 1993 he was appointed as the Chinese Ambassador to {{W|Belgium}}, a post that from 1 November 1993 was also accredited as the ambassador to the {{W|European Union}}. Wu Zhaohua would serve as China's ambassador in Brussels from then until 10 December 2000, a position in which he helped formulate the newly crowned [[Hongxian Emperor]]'s policy of increasing relations with Europe from 1996. Wu also supported different projects and organisations that promoted Chinese culture and teaching the Chinese language in European nations.

On 1 February 2001 Wu Zhaohua became the Chinese Permanent Representative to the League of Nations. Controversially, in November 2002 during an LN Security Council meeting regarding the situation in {{W|Iraq}} and {{W|Saddam Hussein}}'s weapons of mass destruction, Wu abstained during the voting on {{W|United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441|LN Security Council Resolution 1441}}. The resolution would later be used as the legal justification for the invasion of Iraq in 2003 by the [[Anglo-America]]n countries. China being the only one among the fifteen permanent and non-permanent members of the Security Council to abstain from the vote was seen by observers over the next decade as the beginning of the deterioration in relations between China and the Western democracies.

Besides his native Chinese, he also speaks fluent English and {{W|French language|French}}.