Li Zhaoxing

Li Zhaoxing was born in October 1940 in the Japanese-occupied Shandong province. In 1959, after graduating from high school, he entered Peking University . In 1964 he graduated from the University ^[3] and entered the graduate school of the Beijing Institute of Foreign Languages . He graduated from graduate school in 1967. In the same year, he became a referent for the China Association of People's Diplomacy in International Relations . He held this post for a year ^[4] .

In 1968-1970, Li Zhaoxing worked at a cadre school in Lishi County, Shanxi Province and Shangao County, Jiangxi Province, and then at the Nyutianyang State Farm in the Guangzhou Military District . In 1970, he became an employee of the Chinese Embassy in the Republic of Kenya . In 1977, he was appointed referent, deputy head of the department of the Press and Information Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China . In 1983, he became the first secretary of the Chinese Embassy in Lesotho ^[4] .

In 1985-1990, Li Zhaoxing was deputy director, and then director of the Press and Information Department of the Foreign Ministry. In 1990, he was appointed Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1993, as a visiting teacher, he lectured at Peking and Nankai universities. In the same year, he became the Permanent Representative and Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the PRC to the UN ^[4] .

In 1995, Li Zhaoxing took the post of Deputy Foreign Minister. In 1998, he became the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of China to the United States . In 2001, he again became Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the PRC ^[4] and began to actively cooperate with Russian diplomats: he headed the Chinese-Russian working group on combating terrorism ^[3] .

In 2002, it was noted that he, being deputy minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, became a member of the special group on Sino-American relations created by the new secretary general of the CCP Hu Jintao ^[5] .

In 2003, Li Zhaoxing was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs ^[4] .

It was Li Zhaoxing who had to give explanations about the pollution of Sungari , a tributary of the Amur River (as a result of an accident at a Chinese chemical plant in Jilin Province in November 2005, about 100 tons of toxic substances fell into the river). On behalf of the PRC government, the minister apologized to Russia and said that Beijing was ready to assist in the aftermath of the accident. At the same time, the Chinese Foreign Ministry agreed to the arrival of Russian specialists to study the situation at the scene of the accident ^[6] .

Information about the activities of Li Zhaoxing after the second accident at a chemical plant in Jilin Province (the accident happened in August 2006) was not reported to the media. It was only reported that in September 2006 Russia and the PRC decided to create working groups to prevent environmental pollution . It was also decided that the subcommission on cooperation between the two countries in the field of environmental protection will develop an agreement on cooperation in the field of protection and rational use of transboundary waters. The signing of this document was scheduled for November 2006 ^[7] .

In April 2007, Li Zhaoxing was replaced by Yang Jiechi as Minister of Foreign Affairs of China. The press expressed the opinion that Li Zhaoxing was fired due to exceeding the maximum age of 65 for Chinese ministers, adopted by the government. After that, Li Zhaoxing was a member of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ^[8] . In 2010, Li Zhaoxing was a delegate to the All-China People's Congress ^[9] .

Li Zhaoxing released two poetry collections: “The Young Spring of China” and “Selected Poems by Li Zhaoxing”. He also authored the 2008 Olympic Games anthem text (written in February 2006). According to the Jingbao newspaper, Li Zhaoxing decided to transfer the copyrights to the anthem text to the 2008 Olympics Preparation Committee. For his constant interest in literature, Li Zhaoxing received the nickname of “poet-minister” from journalists ^[10] .

He was a member of the organization " Elders ."

Li Zhaoxing is married, he has a son ^[4] .

• When writing this article, we used material ( text in Wikisource ) from Lentapedia , available under a Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 Unported license .