Ma Zhaoxu (also spelled as Ma Chao-hsü; ; born 1 September 1963) is a Chinese diplomat who is currently the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs. He previously served as the Chinese Ambassador to Australia, the spokesman for the

Ministry of Foreign Affairs In many countries, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is the government department responsible for the state's diplomacy, bilateral, and multilateral relations affairs as well as for providing support for a country's citizens who are abroad. The enti ...

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 List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

(PRC), as well as the

director-general A director general or director-general (plural: ''directors general'', ''directors-general'', ''director generals'' or ''director-generals'' ) or general director is a senior executive officer, often the chief executive officer, within a governmen ...

of its Information Department. He also served as China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

from January 2018 to July 2019.

Early life

Ma Zhaoxu was born in

Harbin Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest c ...

Heilongjiang Heilongjiang () Postal romanization, formerly romanized as Heilungkiang, is a Provinces of China, province in northeast China. The standard one-character abbreviation for the province is (). It was formerly romanized as "Heilungkiang". It is th ...

province in September 1963. He graduated from

Peking University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal charte ...

with a degree in

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

. In 1986, he participated in the inaugural Asian college students

debating Debate is a process that involves formal discourse on a particular topic, often including a moderator and audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for often opposing viewpoints. Debates have historically occurred in public meetings, a ...

competition organized by the

Singapore Broadcasting Corporation Mediacorp Pte. Ltd., doing business as Mediacorp and stylised as mediacorp, is a media conglomerate in Singapore. Owned by Temasek Holdings—the holding company of the Government of Singapore—it owns television, radio, and digital media prope ...

(SBC) and won the "best debater" award, becoming well known to PRC college students at the time.

Career

Ma joined the Foreign Affairs Ministry in 1987 and served in various departments and embassies, including

counselor Counselor or counsellor may refer to: A professional In diplomacy and government * Counsellor of State, senior member of the British royal family to whom the Monarch can delegate some functions in case of unavailability * Counselor (dipl ...

at the PRC embassy 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 ...

from 2001 to 2002 and counselor at the PRC embassy in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to ...

from 2002 to 2004. He was appointed deputy director of the

Policy Policy is a deliberate system of guidelines to guide decisions and achieve rational outcomes. A policy is a statement of intent and is implemented as a procedure or protocol. Policies are generally adopted by a governance body within an orga ...

Planning Department in 2004 and director in 2006. In January 2009, he replaced Liu Jianchao as the director-general of the Information Department as well as the head spokesperson of the ministry. Ma is married with one daughter and one grandchild. His daughter was a student at Carnegie Mellon University and George Washington University. Recently, there has been some controversy surrounding Ma Zhaoxu's statement “there are no dissidents in China”, while China responds disapprovingly to the Nobel prize having been awarded to incarcerated Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo. On 6 April 2016, he was appointed as the Permanent Representative of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) and other International Organizations. In 2018, Ma succeeded

Liu Jieyi Liu Jieyi (; born December 1957) is a Chinese diplomat and politician. From March 2018 to December 2022, he was director of the Taiwan Affairs Office. From 2013 to September 2017, he was China's Permanent Representative to the United Nations (U ...

as China's Permanent Representative to the UN in New York. Ma was appointed Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs on July 15, 2019. As vice minister, he is responsible for managing international organizations and conferences, international economy and arms control affairs.

References

External links

Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu's biography
(Ministry of Foreign Affairs of PRC). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ma, Zhaoxu 1963 births Living people Chinese Communist Party politicians from Heilongjiang People's Republic of China politicians from Heilongjiang Ambassadors of China to Australia Peking University alumni Alumni of the London School of Economics Permanent Representatives of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations Diplomats of the People's Republic of China

Early life

Career

See also

References

External links