Qian Qichen | |
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钱其琛 | |
Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China | |
In office 12 April 1988 – 18 March 1998 |
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Premier | Li Peng |
Preceded by | Wu Xueqian |
Succeeded by | Tang Jiaxuan |
Personal details | |
Born |
Jiading, Shanghai, Republic of China |
January 5, 1928
Nationality | Chinese |
Political party | Communist Party of China |
Spouse(s) | Zhou Hanqiong (周寒琼) |
Signature |
Qian Qichen | |||||||
Traditional Chinese | 錢其琛 | ||||||
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Simplified Chinese | 钱其琛 | ||||||
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Transcriptions | |
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Standard Mandarin | |
Hanyu Pinyin | Qián Qíchēn |
Qian Qichen (Chinese: 钱其琛; born January 5, 1928 in Jiading, Shanghai) is a Chinese diplomat and politician. He served as the Chinese foreign minister from 12 April 1988 to 18 March 1998.
Qian joined the Communist Party of China in 1942. After leaving school in 1955, he served as a diplomat in Moscow and other places. He served for a while as ambassador to Guinea. He went to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1977 and was vice-minister of foreign affairs from 1982–1988 and minister from 1988–1998. He was Vice Premier of the State Council from 1993 until he retired in 2003.
During his tenure as China's Foreign Minister, he was the first Chinese diplomat to attend an ASEAN event, going to the 1991 ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Malaysia. This marked the first time China formally acknowledged ASEAN as an institution and laid the groundwork for future ASEAN-China cooperation, like the ASEAN+3 mechanism and the ASEAN-China Free Trade Area (ACFTA).