'China's Voice' Hua Chunying Promoted to Vice Foreign Minister... Third Female Vice Minister in History

Hua Chunying, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs known as the "mouthpiece of China," has been promoted from vice minister to deputy minister. She is the third female deputy minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, following Wang Hairong, who assisted former Chinese President Mao Zedong, and Fu Ying, who served during President Hu Jintao's administration.

On the 27th, the State Council of China announced the appointment of Hua, who was previously the director-general (vice minister) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as deputy minister. Born in 1970, Deputy Minister Hua began her career in 1993 at the Department of European Affairs (Western Europe Division) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She has served at the Chinese Embassy in Singapore, the Chinese Mission to the European Union (EU), and the Department of European Affairs (Europe Division) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2012, she became the fifth female spokesperson in the history of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

She was later promoted to director of the Press Office in 2019, and in 2021, she advanced to director-general, serving as the chief spokesperson until recently. Notably, she attended major international events involving President Xi Jinping, such as the US-China summit held in San Francisco in November last year. She attracted attention by posting previously unseen photos to her social media accounts on Weibo and X (formerly Twitter).