China appoints current ambassador to US as foreign minister

As ambassador to Washington, Qin should ensure better relations between the world’s largest economies. Now he will head the Foreign Ministry. He is known for his tough stance on the West.

China has appointed his previous ambassador to the United States, Qin Gang, as the new foreign minister. This was reported by state radio on Friday. Also known in China as the “Wolf Warrior”, the top diplomat represents a tough stance on the West – according to him, China is a country that has little to learn from the West.

The 56-year-old diplomat replaces his predecessor Wang Yi who has held the post since 2013. The 69-year-old Wang was appointed to the Communist Party’s Politburo in October, where he is expected to play a larger role on foreign policy issues.

A native of the northeastern city of Tianjin, Qinr has been Beijing’s top representative in Washington since last year and is charged with getting ties between the world’s two largest economies back on track. He said in 2020 that China’s image in the West has deteriorated because Europe and the United States never accepted the Chinese political system and the country’s economic rise.

From 2018 to last year, Qin served as deputy foreign minister. Before 2018, he frequently met with President Xi Jinping in his capacity as head of the Foreign Ministry’s Protocol Department. The diplomat previously worked for several years as a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.