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China-EU relations
ChinaDiplomacy

Exclusive | China nominates new EU envoy, moving to fill 10-month vacancy

  • Veteran Chinese official Fu Cong has been nominated as ambassador to the European Union
  • Amid strained ties between Russia and the West, China prepares for high-level European meetings

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China has nominated a new ambassador to the European Union, moving to fill a role that has remained vacant since last December. Fu Cong is a veteran official who is currently director general of the foreign ministry’s Department of Arms Control. Photo: Handout
Finbarr Bermingham

China has nominated a new ambassador to the European Union, moving to fill a role that has lain vacant since last December, according to sources familiar with the situation.

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The nomination of Fu Cong, a veteran official who is currently director general at the foreign ministry’s Department of Arms Control, will now need to be vetted by the EU’s External Action Service, its de facto foreign ministry, but there is no indication as to when he may be installed.

Fu has served most of his overseas duties in Europe, including two terms at China’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, and as a special assistant to former World Health Organization (WHO) chief Margaret Chan.

Fu, who is 57, will fill the vacancy left by Zhang Ming, who left Brussels in December 2021 to take up the top position at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

In the intervening months, speculation has swirled around the city as to why Beijing waited so long before nominating a replacement, with officials speculating in private that the delay suggested the EU was not seen as a foreign policy priority for the Chinese government.
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