Zhu Qizhen

Zhu Qizhen graduated from Shanghai’s St. John’s University in 1948 and joined the foreign ministry the following year. His early service included Egypt and Australia before he directed North American and Oceanian affairs. He participated in the negotiations establishing U.S.–China diplomatic relations and in the talks leading to the August 1982 communiqué on arms sales to Taiwan. ¹

Zhu accompanied Deng Xiaoping’s 1979 visit to the United States and became vice foreign minister in 1984. He served as ambassador in Washington from 1989 to 1993, then moved into parliamentary diplomacy as a deputy director of the National People’s Congress Foreign Affairs Committee. In that role, he led Chinese delegations to eight Inter-Parliamentary Union conferences. ¹