Hon Yang Jiechi

Minister of Foreign Affairs

Date of Birth: 05/1950
Place of Birth: Shanghai

By tradition, China’s Foreign Ministers call at several African capitals in January but Yang Jiechi’s trip in January 2008, barely nine months into his job, had a special significance. In 2008, Asia’s big three – China, India and Japan – seek to strengthen ties with Africa. Those ties will also come under a critical spotlight from, among others, Western corporate rivals and Africa’s civic activists who may be wary of Asia’s economic support for oppressive regimes.

Foreign Minister Yang’s tour took in South Africa as well as Burundi, Congo-Kinshasa and Ethiopia – three other states whose human rights records have been heavily criticised but who all share close relations with Western powers. Beneath the cordiality, Yang had to address serious concerns about South Africa’s trade deficit with China and the speed of new Chinese mining investment in Congo.

An Anglophone specialist, Yang was promoted to Foreign Affairs Minister because of his knowledge of the United States and of international diplomacy. Born in Shanghai in 1950, he joined the Communist Party in 1971 as an undergraduate. After postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics, he joined the Foreign Affairs Ministry’s Translation and Interpretation Department.

Yang’s first posting abroad was to China’s Embassy in Washington DC. When rotated back to Beijing, he rose within the Foreign Ministry, becoming Director of North American and Oceania Affairs in 1990, then Vice-Minister. In 2001, he as Ambassador to the USA, he spearheaded China’s demand for an apology after a US spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet collided off the coast of China, killing the Chinese pilot. Yang left Washington in 2005. He was Vice-Minister responsible for Latin America, as well as Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, when Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing retired in April 2007. As one of China’s most effective and experienced diplomats, Yang was chosen to succeed him.