New year, new Chinese ambassadors
New year, new Chinese ambassadors
China begins 2024 with a quick succession of new appointments
It has been a busy start to 2024, with four new Chinese ambassadors taking up their posts since 1 January. These were:
Fei Mingxing, Chinese Ambassador to Samoa
Cao Xiaolin, Chinese Ambassador to Qatar
Pang Chunxue, Chinese Ambassador to Albania
Wang Liang, Chinese Ambassador to Bolivia
All of these countries are strategically important to China, albeit for different reasons. For example, Qatar is an important supplier of LNG, Bolivia has the world’s largest lithium reserves, Samoa is located in a key part of the South Pacific, and Albania is a potential link for China into Europe.
Whilst technically occurring at the end of last year, another recent change to China’s diplomatic network was the arrival of Wang Wengang to Equatorial Guinea on 31 December 2023. China reportedly has had plans to establish a naval base there for years, however nothing has ever been made public.
Even though all of these countries are strategically important to China, none of these posts are senior ambassadorial roles. This is evidenced by the fact that most of the new appointees had not previously held the rank of ambassador. Indeed, the only one with previous ambassadorial experience is Cao Xiaolin, who used to be the Chinese Ambassador to Tonga.
The only appointees with an official CV available online were Fei Mingxing and Wang Wengang. For everyone else, open-source data was used to approximate their career. See the end of this article for more information on each ambassador.
According to the information available, only two of the new ambassadors have experience working in roles related to their current region, namely, Fei Mingxing (Oceania) and Wang Liang (South America).
It is not clear why Pang Chunxue was posted to Europe, given her extensive experience working in South Asia. That being said, the only vacant post in South Asia is the ambassadorial post to India, which is a vice-ministerial-level role and will require a more seasoned ambassador.
Similarly, until his posting to West Africa, Wang Wengang had spent his entire career specialising in European affairs. It would seem, therefore, that Wang would have been a better candidate for the ambassadorial position in Albania. However, some unknown factor may have been the reason he was ultimately not selected for that role.
With the arrival of this new cohort, the number of vacant Chinese ambassadorial posts has fallen to just under a dozen. As it is typical for around a quarter of China’s diplomatic roster to change each year, it is likely that we will also see a number of current ambassadors conclude their posts to make room for new appointments.
Stay tuned for future updates from China Diplomatic Digest.
Fei Mingxing (费明星), Chinese Ambassador to Samoa
Career (past 20 years):
2003 - 2005: First Secretary, Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA)
2005 - 2006: Consul, Chinese Consulate in Brisbane
2006 - 2010: Counselor and Deputy Chief of Mission, Chinese Embassy in Fiji
2010 - 2015: Counselor and Division Director, Consular Department, MFA
2015 - 2018: Counselor | Minister Counselor, Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom
2018 - 2023: Chinese Consul General in Durban, South Africa
2023: Counselor, Consular Department, MFA
2024 - Present: Chinese Ambassador to Samoa
Education:
Studied English at Southwest Normal University (1984 - 1988)
See his full CV up to 2018 here (written in Mandarin).
Other sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Cao Xiaolin (曹小林), Chinese Ambassador to Qatar
Recent Career*:
2011 - 2017: Counselor, Chinese Embassy in Kenya
2017 - 2020: Deputy Director-General, Department of External Security Affairs, MFA
2020 - 2023: Ambassador to Tonga
2024 - Present: Ambassador to Qatar
Pang Chunxue (庞春雪), Chinese Ambassador to Albania
Recent Career*:
2010 - 2011: First Secretary, Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom
From 2011 (until at least 2013): Counselor | Deputy Chief of Mission | Chargé d'Affaires, Chinese Embassy in Afghanistan
2016 - 2018: Counselor | Deputy Chief of Mission | Chargé d'Affaires, Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka
2019 - 2023: Minister Counselor | Minister | Deputy Chief of Mission | Chargé d'Affaires, Chinese Embassy in Pakistan
2024 - Present: Chinese Ambassador to Albania
Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Wang Liang (王亮), Chinese Ambassador to Bolivia
Recent Career*:
2015 - 2018: Counselor | Minister Counselor | Chargé d'Affaires, Chinese Embassy in Argentina
2019 - 2023: Director of the General Office | Deputy Director-General, Department of Latin American and Caribbean Affairs, MFA
2024 - Present: Chinese Ambassador to Bolivia
Wang Wengang (王文刚), Chinese Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea
Recent career*:
2011 - 2015: Counselor, Chinese Embassy in Poland
2015 - 2017: Counselor, Department of European Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs
2017 - 2019: Deputy Mayor of Zhangzhou Municipal People's Government (temporary post)
2019 - 2023: Chinese Consul General in Florence, Italy
2023 - Present: Chinese Ambassador to Equatorial Guinea
Education:
Studied Polish at the Beijing Foreign Studies University (1986 - 1990)
See his full CV up to 2019 here (written in Mandarin).
Other sources: 1, 2, 3
*Information compiled using open-source data and may be incomplete. Exact dates were also not always available.