Cui Tiankai

Cui Tiankai spent part of his youth working in rural Heilongjiang before attending Shanghai Normal University and becoming a teacher. He trained as an interpreter and worked in the United Nations Secretariat from 1981 to 1984. After further study at Johns Hopkins, he combined multilateral assignments with foreign ministry work on policy planning and Asian affairs. ¹

Cui served as ambassador to Japan and vice foreign minister before taking charge in Washington in 2013. He remained for eight years, the longest Washington tenure of any ambassador of the People’s Republic up to that time. In his 2021 farewell letter, he urged a choice for dialogue and cooperation as American policy toward China changed. ^{1, 2}