Photo: Official website of the Chinese Embassy in South Africa

The Chinese Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security announced the appointment of Chen Xiaodong on Thursday. Chen, who previously served as the Chinese ambassador to South Africa, will assume the role of vice foreign minister. The addition of Chen brings the total number of vice foreign ministers to four in China, including Ma Zhaoxu, Sun Weidong, and Deng Li.

Chen served as the Chinese ambassador to South Africa for nearly three and a half years. According to the embassy website, Chen and his wife Zhang Bin held a farewell reception at the embassy, followed by a pre-departure visit to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last week. They returned to China on Monday.

Chen, a member of the Communist Party of China, was born in December 1965 and hails from Lujiang, East China's Anhui Province. He graduated from the Beijing International Studies University, majoring in Arabic. He has a master's degree in business administration.

With extensive experience in diplomatic work, he served for many years in the West Asia and North Africa Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). He has also held diplomatic positions in countries including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, the UK, and Singapore.

In 2006, Chen was appointed as the Chinese ambassador to Iraq, and in 2008 as the minister-counselor at the Chinese Embassy in the UK. 

He was named the director-general of the Department of West Asian and North African Affairs at the MFA in 2010, and in 2015 served as the Chinese ambassador to Singapore. 

In 2017, Chen returned to China to serve as the assistant minister of Foreign Affairs, overseeing affairs related to West Asia, North Africa, Africa, foreign security, and archives.

Chen arrived in South Africa to take up his post as the sixth Chinese ambassador to the country in September 2020. At the time, he said at the airport, that the current international situation, marked by a century of change and the COVID-19 pandemic, is intertwined, making it more necessary than ever for China and South Africa to strengthen unity and cooperation.

During Chen's term as the ambassador, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to South Africa in August 2023 and attended the 15th BRICS Summit. 

Before departing from South Africa, Chen said he was "most delighted" to see the cake of mutually beneficial cooperation between the two partners grow bigger and bigger. 

China has been South Africa's largest trading partner for 15 consecutive years, and South Africa has participated in the China International Import Expo for six consecutive years. South African products such as beef, oranges, red wine, oysters, and rooibos tea are widely consumed by Chinese consumers.

At the beginning of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and South Africa, the bilateral trade volume was only about $1.57 billion. By 2022, it had reached $56.74 billion, an almost 35-fold increase, Chen noted. 

During his farewell visit to Ramaphosa, the South African President highly commended the outstanding work and contributions made by Chen during his tenure.

According to the Revised Organic Law of the State Council passed on Monday, each constituent department of the State Council is to have one minister and two to four vice ministers. 

Global Times