| Yang Jiechi 杨洁篪 |
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|---|---|
| Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 27 April 2007 |
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| Premier | Wen Jiabao |
| Deputy | Zhang Zhijun |
| Preceded by | Li Zhaoxing |
| Personal details | |
| Born | May 1950 (age 61) Shanghai, China |
| Political party | Communist Party of China |
| Spouse(s) | Le Aimei |
| Alma mater | University of Bath London School of Economics Nanjing University |
| Signature | |
Yang Jiechi (simplified Chinese: 杨洁篪; traditional Chinese: 楊潔篪; 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.
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Yang was born in Shanghai in May 1950. He graduated from Shanghai Foreign Language School and attended the University of Bath and the London School of Economics from 1973 to 1975. He has a PhD in history.
He previously served 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.
In July 2010 at the ASEAN Ministers Conference in Hanoi, Yang, responding to remarks by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on freedom of navigation in the South China Sea, called the remarks "an attack on China" and told Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs George Yeo that "China is a big country and other countries are small countries, and that's just a fact."[1]
Yang Jiechi received an honorary degree from the Geneva School of Diplomacy in 2009.[2]
| Diplomatic posts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Li Zhaoxing |
Chinese Ambassador to the United States 2001–2005 |
Succeeded by Zhou Wenzhong |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by Li Zhaoxing |
Minister of Foreign Affairs 2007–present |
Incumbent |
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