CONGRATULATIONS ARE IN order for Hua Chunying (above), the long-time and formidable spokesperson at the Foreign Ministry, on her promotion to vice foreign minister, announced on May 27.
At 54, Hua will be the youngest of the five vice foreign ministers and, little surprise in the male-dominated upper echelons of China’s bureaucracy, the only woman.
Hua, a Foreign Ministry ministry veteran, served as a spokesperson for more than 11 years from 2012 before being promoted to head the ministry’s press department in 2019 and then to assistant foreign minister in 2021.
Our man in Beijing with the reporter’s notebook recalls her smart, combative and unflappable professionalism — almost fondly.
China Bystander 