Hua Chunying

Hua Chunying (Chinese: 华春莹; born 24 April 1970) is a Chinese official and former diplomat serving as spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China since 2012 and as the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2021.[2] Hua was the fifth spokeswoman and 27th spokesperson since the position was established in the ministry in 1983.[3]

In this Chinese name, the family name is Hua.
Hua Chunying
华春莹
Hua in January 2019
Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs
Assumed office
25 October 2021[1]
MinisterWang Yi
Director of the Foreign Ministry Information Department of China
In office
July 2019 – October 2021
DeputyGeng Shuang
Yu Dunhai
Zhao Lijian
Preceded byLu Kang
Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry Information Department of China
In office
2012–2019
Preceded byHong Lei
Succeeded byYu Dunhai
Personal details
Born (1970-04-24) April 24, 1970
Huaiyin, Jiangsu, China
Political partyChinese Communist Party (1993–present)
Parent(s)Qian Yong (father)
Hua Jie (mother)
RelativesQian Chunmin (sister)
Alma materNanjing University
OccupationDiplomat
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese华春莹
Traditional Chinese華春瑩

Biography

Hua was born in Huai'an, Jiangsu. Both her parents were officials; her father was formerly secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of the Chinese Communist Party in Huai'an County, and her mother was the deputy director of a local district.[4] She graduated from Nanjing University in 1992, where she majored in English language at the School of Foreign Languages.

After graduation, Hua was appointed as an official to the Department of Western Europe. Over a period of 20 years, Hua worked her way up to the position of spokeswoman. After 1995, she spent four years in Singapore as an attaché. During 2003 to 2010, she was promoted from her position as secretary to that of counselor in China's Mission to the European Union.

In 2012, Hua was promoted to deputy director of the Foreign Ministry Information Department of the People's Republic of China. She serves concurrently as the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China.[5] In February 2018, during a prolonged absence at the Foreign Ministry, there were reports Hua was investigated for storing large amounts of U.S. dollars in her home. On March 1, 2018, Hua returned to work as Foreign Ministry spokeswoman.[6] On July 18, 2019, she was appointed director of the Foreign Ministry Information Department of the People's Republic of China, succeeding Lu Kang.[7] She became the second female director-general of the Information Department after Gong Peng, the very first director-general of this department.[8][9] In October 2021, she was promoted to assistant minister of foreign affairs. Hua will be overseeing the ministry’s work related to information, protocol and translation.[10]

Commentary

Hua has criticized the US plea to release Pu Zhiqiang saying "I think lots of people have the same feeling with me, that some people in the United States have hearts that are too big and hands that are too long. Washington should address human rights problems at home and stop trying to be the world's policeman or judge."[11]

In 2021, she compared the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol with the 2019 storming of the Legislative Council.[12]

COVID-19 conspiracy theory
Main article: COVID-19 misinformation by China

In January 2021, Hua renewed questions about the SARS-CoV-2 virus originating in the United States at the Fort Detrick Army Medical Command Installation. This conspiracy theory quickly went trending on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, and Hua continued to cite evidence on Twitter, while asking the government of the United States to open up Fort Detrick for further investigation to determine if it is the source of the SARS-CoV-2 virus.[13]

Social media

In February 2021, Hua said that many Western officials use Weibo and Wechat, and asked "Why can't Chinese people use Twitter or Facebook when foreigners can use Chinese social media platforms?"[14] Twitter and Facebook have been banned by the mainland Chinese government since 2009.[14]

Personal life

Hua Chunying enjoys playing tennis.[15]

See also

References
  1. Huaxia, ed. (25 October 2021). "China's State Council appoints, removes officials". Xinhua. Archived from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  2. "CV of Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying". Archived from the original on 2017-08-09. Retrieved 2017-08-16.
  3. "Hua Chunying Named as New Spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry". 2012. Archived from the original on 2016-04-06.
  4. 外交部新发言人出生干部家庭 大学四年没谈恋爱. Tencent (in Chinese). 2012-11-19. Archived from the original on 2014-05-13. Alt URL Archived 2015-04-14 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Archived copy" 华春莹任外交部新发言人 下周一主持发布会. 163.COM (in Chinese). 2012-11-16. Archived from the original on 2012-11-19. Retrieved 2014-05-11.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. Strong, Matthew (2018-03-01). "China foreign ministry spokeswoman reappears after U.S. dollar accusations". Taiwan News. Archived from the original on 2019-07-26. Retrieved 2019-07-26.
  7. 华春莹接棒陆慷任外交部新闻司司长 陆慷新职公开. 163.com (in Chinese). 2019-07-22. Archived from the original on 2019-07-22. Retrieved 2019-07-22.
  8. 2019年7月22日外交部发言人耿爽主持例行记者会 (in Chinese (China)). Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China. 2019-07-22. Archived from the original on 2019-09-29. Retrieved 2019-09-30.
  9. "Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang's Regular Press Conference on July 22, 2019". Consulate General of The People's Republic of China in Chicago. 2019-07-23. Archived from the original on 2019-09-30. Retrieved 2019-09-30.
  10. Cai, Xuejiao; Lin, Yunshi (25 October 2021). "Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Promoted to Assistant Minister". caixinglobal.com. Archived from the original on 25 October 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2021.
  11. "China Rebukes U.S. Over Criticism of Civil Rights Lawyer's Detention". New York Times. 7 May 2015. Archived from the original on 19 May 2015. Retrieved 7 May 2015.
  12. "Beijing draws comparison between Capitol riots and Hong Kong protests". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 January 2021. Archived from the original on 1 March 2021. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
  13. Li, Jane. "China's gift for the Biden inauguration is a conspiracy theory about Covid-19's US origins". Quartz. Archived from the original on 2021-02-20. Retrieved 2021-01-21.
  14. "'Why can't Chinese people use Twitter or Facebook...?' asks China's gov't spokesperson amid gov't ban". Hong Kong Free Press HKFP. 2021-02-22. Retrieved 2021-02-22.
  15. 外交部发言人华春莹：工作和加班以外，就在网球场. Sohu (in Chinese). 2018-04-12. Archived from the original on 2018-05-12. Retrieved 2018-05-12.
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