Ke Hua (; 19 December 1915 – 1 January 2019) was a Chinese diplomat who served as Chinese Ambassador to Guinea from 1960 to 1964, Chinese Ambassador to Ghana from 1972 to 1974, Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines from 1975 to 1978, and

Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom The Chinese Ambassador to the United Kingdom is the official representative from the People's Republic of China to the United Kingdom, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Formerly the Chinese ambassadors represented the Qing ...

from 1978 to 1983.

Biography

Ke Hua was born as Lin Dechang () in Lihu Town of Puning County,

Guangdong Province Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, on December 19, 1915. He entered the

Yenching University Yenching University (), was a university in Beijing, China, that was formed out of the merger of four Christian colleges between the years 1915 and 1920. The term "Yenching" comes from an alternative name for old Beijing, derived from its status ...

in 1935, during his school days, he participated in the

December 9th Movement The December 9th Movement () was a mass protest led by students in Beiping (present-day Beijing) on December 9, 1935 to demand that the Chinese government actively resist Japanese aggression. Background After the Japanese Imperial Force occupied ...

. In April 1937, he visited

Yan'an Yan'an (; ), alternatively spelled as Yenan is a prefecture-level city in the Shaanbei region of Shaanxi province, China, bordering Shanxi to the east and Gansu to the west. It administers several counties, including Zhidan (formerly Bao'an ...

, where he got the chance to meet

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the founder of the People's Republic of China (PRC) ...

. In November 1937, he went to

Linfen Linfen is a prefecture-level city in the southwest of Shanxi province, China, bordering Shaanxi province to the west. It is situated along the banks of the Fen River. It has an area of and according to the 2020 Census, a population of 3,976,4 ...

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...

to join the

Eighth Route Army The Eighth Route Army (), officially known as the 18th Group Army of the National Revolutionary Army of the Republic of China, was a group army under the command of the Chinese Communist Party, nominally within the structure of the Chinese ...

. After the establishment of the Communist State in 1949, he became vice-party chief of Xi'an, Shaanxi. In December 1954, he was transferred to

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, capital of China, where he was appointed director of the Department of Protocol of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In March 1960 he was appointed Chinese Ambassador to Guinea, a position he held until May 1964. Then he successively served as Chinese Ambassador to Ghana from 1972 to 1974, Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines from 1975 to 1978, and

from 1978 to 1983. Ke returned to China in 1983, and that same year he was appointed counselor of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council. He was involved in the early stage of Sino-British talks on

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

's future in the early 1980s. In 1988, he became a member of the 7th National Committee Standing committee of the

Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference The Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC, zh, 中国人民政治协商会议), also known as the People's PCC (, ) or simply the PCC (), is a political advisory body in the People's Republic of China and a central part of ...

. He retired in 1995. On January 1, 2019, he died of illness in

, aged 103.

Personal life

Ke married Zhang Ming (), and the couple had three daughters. His youngest daughter,

Ke Lingling Ke Lingling (born 1951; zh, c=柯玲玲, p=kē líng líng; also known as Ke Xiaoming ()) is the ex-wife of Xi Jinping, who is now the General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and known as the paramount leader. She is from Puning, Guang ...

(), was

Xi Jinping Xi Jinping ( ; ; ; born 15 June 1953) is a Chinese politician who has served as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and chairman of the Central Military Commission (CMC), and thus as the paramount leader of China, s ...

's first wife. Ke Lingling has been living in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

since 1982.

References

External links

Biography of Ke Hua
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ke, Hua 1915 births 2019 deaths Ambassadors of China to Ghana Ambassadors of China to Guinea Ambassadors of China to the Philippines Ambassadors of China to the United Kingdom Chinese Communist Party politicians from Guangdong People's Republic of China politicians from Guangdong Chinese centenarians Men centenarians Yenching University alumni Politicians from Jieyang