Qin Gang (; born 19 March 1966) is a Chinese diplomat and politician who has been serving as

Minister of Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between cou ...

since 2022, making him China's second highest ranked diplomat after

CCP Politburo The Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party, formally known as the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and known as the Central Bureau before 1927, is the decision-making body of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). ...

member Wang Yi. He previously served as Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2018 and 2021, and

Chinese Ambassador to the United States The Chinese Ambassador to the United States is the official representative from the People's Republic of China to the United States of America. List of representatives This is a list of diplomatic representatives from China to the United Stat ...

between 2021 and 2022.

Early life and education

Qin Gang was born in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popul ...

, then part of

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, an ...

, in March 1966. He received a

Bachelor of Laws Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

international politics International relations (IR), sometimes referred to as international studies and international affairs, is the Scientific method, scientific study of interactions between sovereign states. In a broader sense, it concerns all activities betwe ...

from the

University of International Relations The University of International Relations (UIR; ) is a national public university in Beijing, China. Its former English name is translated as "Institute of International Relations." It is also colloquially known as "Guoguan" (国关 Guó Gū ...

in 1988.

Career

After his graduation from college, Qin worked as a staff member at the Beijing Service Bureau for Diplomatic Missions. In 1992, he entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as

attaché In diplomacy, an attaché is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified accor ...

and Third Secretary at the Department of West European Affairs. Later, he worked at the Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom as Secretary and Counselor from 1995 to 2005, and worked at the Foreign Ministry Information Department as the Deputy Director-General and spokesman from 2005 to 2010. Burns-Qin meeting (2022-11-09)

In September 2010, Qin was appointed as the

Envoy Envoy or Envoys may refer to: Diplomacy * Diplomacy, in general * Envoy (title) * Special envoy, a type of diplomatic rank Brands *Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft *Envoy (automobile), an automobile brand used to sell Bri ...

of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

to 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 ...

. In December 2011, he returned to Beijing to serve as the director general of the Foreign Ministry Information Department. From 2014 to 2017, Qin served as the Director General of the Foreign Ministry Protocol Department. He became Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs of China in 2017 and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of China in September 2018. In July 2021, Qin became the 11th Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the United States, succeeding

Cui Tiankai Cui Tiankai (; born October 1952) is a Chinese diplomat and longest-serving Chinese Ambassador to the United States, a role he filled from April 2013 to June 2021. Early life and education In 1952, Cui was born in Shanghai, China. He is a nat ...

, pursuant to the

National People's Congress The National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China (NPC; ), or simply the National People's Congress, is constitutionally the supreme state authority and the national legislature of the People's Republic of China. With 2, ...

decision. In January 2022, in an interview with

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

, Qin called the

Uyghur genocide The Chinese government has committed a series of ongoing human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang that is often characterized as genocide. Since 2014, the Chinese government, under the a ...

"fabrications, lies and disinformation." In April 2022, a special question and answer (Q&A) session between the three '' taikonauts'' of

Shenzhou 13 Shenzhou 13 () was a Chinese spaceflight launched on 15 October 2021 at 16:23 UTC. The flight marked the eighth crewed Chinese spaceflight and the thirteenth flight of the Shenzhou program. The spacecraft carried three People's Liberation Army ...

aboard the Tiangong space station and American students was held in the Chinese Embassy in the United States,

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Qin served as the official host of the event. In December 2022, Qin was appointed the 12th Minister of Foreign Affairs, succeeding Wang Yi.

Personal life

Qin is married. He has one son.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Qin, Gang Foreign Ministers of the People's Republic of China Members of the 20th Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party 1966 births Living people People's Republic of China politicians from Tianjin Chinese Communist Party politicians from Tianjin Political office-holders in Hebei University of International Relations alumni Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China officials Ambassadors of China to the United States