Yang Jiechi

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This is a Chinese name; the family name is Yang.
Yang Jiechi
杨洁篪
Yang Jiechi

Incumbent
Assumed office 
2007
Preceded by Li Zhaoxing

Born May, 1950
Shanghai, China
Nationality Chinese
Political party Communist Party of China

Yang Jiechi (Chinese: 杨洁篪; pinyin: Yáng Jiéchí; born May, 1950) is the current and the tenth foreign minister of the People's Republic of China. He was promoted to China's top diplomatic post on April 27, 2007.

[edit] Biography

Yang was born in Shanghai and attended Bath University and the London School of Economics from 1973 to 1975. He previously worked as a diplomat in the United States, beginning as a Second Secretary in 1983 and later as Ambassador from 2001 to 2005, and as Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs responsible for Latin America and Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan.

During his tenure as ambassador to the United States, Yang worked to ease the tensions between the two countries following the 2001 mid-air collision between a U.S. EP-3 spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet off the coast of Hainan Island in the South China Sea.

In April 2007, Yang replaced Li Zhaoxing, who had served as China's foreign minister since 2003, as the tenth foreign minister of China. As it is traditional for China's cabinet ministers to retire at the age of 65, Yang, who was 57 in 2007, is expected to hold China's top diplomatic post past 2012.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Li Zhaoxing
Chinese Ambassador to the United States
20012005
Succeeded by
Zhou Wenzhong
Preceded by
Li Zhaoxing
Foreign Minister of China
2007
Succeeded by
Incumbent