Wu Zhaohua
Wu Zhaohua | |
|---|---|
|
吳照華 | |
 | |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
|
In office 1 October 2012 – 4 August 2016 | |
| President | Ren Longyun |
| Preceded by | Wang Yucheng |
| Succeeded by | Liu Jiaoren |
| Permanent Representative of China to the League of Nations | |
|
In office 1 February 2001 – 17 September 2008 | |
| Preceded by | Xiong Pei |
| Succeeded by | Liu Fanhui |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
March 21, 1949 Yibin, Sichuan, China |
| Spouse(s) | Ji Yuhan |
| Children | 3 |
Wu Zhaohua (Chinese: 吳照華, born 21 March 1949) is a Chinese career diplomat who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China from October 2012 to August 2016. Previously he held many other diplomatic posts, most notably the Chinese Permanent Representative to the League of Nations from 2001 to 2008 and the Chinese Ambassador to Belgium and the European Community from 1993 to 2000.
Early life
Wu Zhaohua was born in Yibin, a city in Sichuan province, on 21 March 1949. While he was in secondary and high school he was an athlete, enjoying taekwondo, and his favorite class was physics. Wu originally planned to study that subject at the Imperial University of Peking, but instead ended up choosing international relations, and later also attended the London School of Economics. This was around the time that China began implementing reforms and increasingly opening up to the world, with more encouragement for Chinese students to study abroad. Wu Zhaohua graduated from LSE with a master's degree in international relations, also having studied the English and French languages, and after returning to China in 1970 he went to work for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Service in government
Early career
He was initially assigned as an English translator at the Chinese embassy in the United Kingdom and would spend most of his career focusing on Western Europe or North America. Wu had also been given the task of analyzing the political situation in the country. In 1975, Wu received a new assignment as a translator at the embassy in Brazoria. Upon 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 that same year and translated during several meetings between Chinese officials and English-speaking foreign politicians and diplomats, most famously accompanying the President Zhou Zhiyong as his translator during his visit to Sierra and several other Anglo-American countries.
In 1982 he was sent to China's permanent mission to the League of Nations in Geneva as a translator. In July 1985 Wu received his first major post when he became China's Deputy Permanent Representative to the LN, which he held until April 1989. He returned and worked at the central office of the Foreign Ministry in Beijing for several years, briefly serving as the interim Chief of the Western European Bureau from October 1991 to January 1992. In the autumn of 1993 he was appointed as the Chinese Ambassador to Belgium, a post that from 1 November 1993 was also accredited as the ambassador to the European Community. Wu Zhaohua would serve as China's ambassador in Brussels from then until 10 December 2000, a position in which he helped formulate President Song Kun'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.
LN ambassador
On 1 February 2001 Wu Zhaohua became the Chinese Permanent Representative to the League of Nations. Controversially, in November 2003 during a League of Nations Security Council meeting he questioned the allegations of Sierra and others about Syria's involvement with the September 11 attacks. The resolution would later be used as the legal justification for the invasion of Syria in 2004 by the Anglo-American countries. China being the only one among the fifteen permanent and non-permanent members of the Security Council to not vote in favour was seen by observers over the next decade as the beginning of the deterioration in relations between China and the Western democracies. It was not only Wu's decision but a matter of Chinese policy.
Foreign minister
Personal life
Besides his native Chinese, he also speaks fluent English and French. Wu has been married to Ji Yuhan since 1979 and they have three children.