21 Facts About Qian Qichen

Qian Qichen was a Chinese diplomat and politician.

Qian Qichen served as Chinese Communist Party Politburo member from 1992 to 2002, China's Foreign Minister from April 1988 to March 1998, and as Vice Premier from March 1993 to March 2003.

Qian Qichen was in charge of border negotiations with the Soviet Union in the 1980s, resulting in a successful settlement of the border dispute and the thawing of the relations between China and Russia.

Qian Qichen was instrumental in handling China's normalization of relations with the West in the difficult period after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

Qian Qichen hailed from a prominent scholarly family from Waigang, Jiading, Jiangsu province.

Qian Qichen was a descendant of the celebrated Qing dynasty historian Qian Daxin.

From 1942 to 1945, Qian Qichen attended the Utopia University High School in Shanghai.

Qian Qichen secretly joined the Chinese Communist Party in 1942 at the age of 14.

Qian Qichen left for the Soviet Union and studied at the Komsomol Central School in Moscow from 1954 to 1955.

Qian Qichen successively served as Second Secretary in the Chinese Embassy, Director of Department of Overseas Chinese Students and Deputy Director General of the Foreign Department of the Ministry of Higher Education, and Counsellor in the Chinese Embassy.

Qian Qichen went to work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1977 and was vice-minister of foreign affairs from 1982 to 1988 and minister from 1988 to 1998.

Qian Qichen was Vice Premier of the State Council, under Premiers Li Peng and Zhu Rongji, from 1993 until his retirement in 2003.

Qian Qichen was in charge of border negotiations with the Soviet Union in the 1980s, which resulted in a successful settlement of the border dispute and the thawing of the bilateral relations between China and Russia.

Qian Qichen was instrumental in handling China's normalization of relations with the West in the difficult period after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989; his meeting with then British Foreign Secretary John Major in July 1989 was the first such contact.

In October 1989, Qian Qichen engaged in low-profile outreach when he attended the annual UN General Assembly in New York, seeking to reassure his listeners that China would proceed with reform.

Qian Qichen was the first Chinese diplomat to attend an ASEAN event, going to the 1991 ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Malaysia.

Qian Qichen was a member of the 12th to 15th CCP Central Committee.

Qian Qichen was a member of the 14th and 15th CCP Politburo.

Qian Qichen was fluent in Russian and English, and understood some French.

Qian Qichen published a memoir in 2004, entitled Ten Episodes in China's Diplomacy.

Qian Qichen died of illness on 9 May 2017 in Beijing, at the age of 89.