Zhu Fenglian (; born November 1977) is a Chinese diplomat who is currently serving as deputy director and spokesperson of the information bureau at the

Taiwan Affairs Office The Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council is an administrative agency under the State Council of Mainland China. It is responsible for setting and implementing guidelines and policies related to the Republic of China (Taiwan), as stipulate ...

of the State Council.

Early life

Zhu was born in

Meizhou Meizhou (, Hakka Chinese: Mòichû) is a prefecture-level city in eastern Guangdong province, China. It has an area of , and a population of 3,873,239 million as of the 2020 census. It comprises Meijiang District, Meixian District, Xingning City ...

Guangdong 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) ...

province in 1977, to a poor family of

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

ethnicity. Her father was a construction worker and her mother was a small street vendor. In middle school, Zhu served as a hall monitor. She graduated with Bachelor in Foreign Languages at

Beihang University Beihang University, previously known as Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (), abbreviated as BUAA or Beihang ( zh, c=北航, p=), is a national public research university located in Beijing, China, specializing in engineering, t ...

in 1996 and later graduated with Masters in Foreign Languages from the same institution in 2000. Zhu graduated with Masters in Public Administration at

Tsinghua University Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...

Diplomatic career

In July 2003, she joined the Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) of the State Council. From September 2010 to January 2019, she served as deputy director and director of the

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 ...

Macao Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

and

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Affairs Bureau of TAO. In August 2019, she was appointed as the deputy director of the information bureau of TAO and later in November 2019, also made the spokesperson. Besides her native language

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

, Zhu is also fluent in

Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...

and

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages in ...

dialects.

Statements

On July 31, 2020, following the death of former

President of Taiwan The president of the Republic of China, now often referred to as the president of Taiwan, is the head of state of the Republic of China (ROC), as well as the commander-in-chief of the Republic of China Armed Forces. The position once had aut ...

Lee Teng-hui Lee Teng-hui (; 15 January 192330 July 2020) was a Taiwanese statesman and economist who served as President of the Republic of China (Taiwan) under the 1947 Constitution and chairman of the Kuomintang (KMT) from 1988 to 2000. He was the fir ...

, who was an outspoken supporter of

Taiwan independence Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast ...

, Zhu was quoted saying:

I want to stress that Taiwan independence is a dead end. The historical trend of national unification and national restoration cannot be stopped by any person or force.

On March 29, 2021, when Western clothing brands announced their boycott of cotton from

Xinjiang Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwest ...

in response to human rights abuses in that region, Zhu stated:

External anti-China forces concocted rumours such as '
forced labor Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...
' and '
genocide Genocide is the intentional destruction of a people—usually defined as an ethnic, national, racial, or religious group—in whole or in part. Raphael Lemkin coined the term in 1944, combining the Greek word (, "race, people") with the Latin ...
' in order to smear the image of the mainland, undermine the security and stability of Xinjiang, and curb the development of the mainland. They use cotton to talk about things, and the drunkard's intention is not to drink alcohol, but to slander and smear without bottom line.

On November 6, 2021, Zhu declared that China would hold supporters of Taiwan independence movement criminally liable. A blacklist was created which would penalise them by not letting them enter China and Special Administrative Regions of

and

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

, and prohibiting them and their entities to do business in China. Zhu also stated regarding Taiwanese independence supporters:

Those who forget their ancestors, betray the motherland and split the country, will never end up well, and will be spurned by the people and judged by history.

On March 31, 2022, Zhu called on the Taiwanese youth to start business in China, saying:

The opportunities China can offer are beyond your imagination.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Zhu, Fenglian 1977 births Living people Chinese women diplomats Tsinghua University alumni Beihang University alumni Cross-Strait relations People's Republic of China politicians from Guangdong Politicians from Meizhou 21st-century Chinese politicians Chinese politicians of Hakka descent