Chinese Ambassadors

The author brings twelve years of personal experience in the Chinese foreign service to this pathbreaking study. Drawing on her own direct observations, interviews, and newly available Chinese sources, she examines four generations of Chinese ambassadors, who served from 1949 to 1994. She charts the evolution of the Chinese diplomatic corps from its early military orientation to the emergence of career professionals and assesses the impact of various ambassadors on Chinese foreign policy.

Chinese Ambassadors will appeal to readers interested in Chinese foreign affairs, international relations, and diplomacy.

Xiaohong Liu, a former Chinese foreign service officer who worked on Western European affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 1977 to 1989, lives in Virginia. She received her Ph.D. in China Studies in 1997 from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University and has worked there as an associate research fellow.

“Chinese Ambassadors brings to bear a thorough reading of memoirs, histories, and documentary materials on previously sensitive aspects of PRC foreign relations and politics.” —H. Lyman Miller, author of Science and Dissent in Post-Mao China: The Politics of Knowledge

“The author has culled an extraordinarily large number of memoirs of Chinese diplomats that have not been used much, if at all, in English-language scholarship to date. She provides fascinating insights into the workings of the Chinese foreign service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” —David Bachman, Chair of the China Studies Program, University of Washington