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China Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Since 1949 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been one of
China's most important ministries. Each area of foreign relations,
divided either geographically or functionally, is overseen by a
vice minister or assistant minister. For example, one vice
minister's area of specialty was the Soviet Union and Eastern
Europe, while another was responsible for the Americas and
Australia. At the next level, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
divided into departments, some geographical and some functional in
responsibility. The regionally oriented departments included those
concerned with Africa, the Americas and Oceania, Asia, the Middle
East, the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Taiwan,
and Hong Kong and Macao. The functional departments were
responsible for administration, cadres, consular affairs, finance,
information, international laws and treaties, international
organizations and affairs, personnel, protocol, training and
education, and translation. Below the department level were
divisions, such as the United States Affairs Division under the
Department of American and Oceanian Affairs.
A recurring problem for the foreign ministry and the diplomatic
corps has been a shortage of qualified personnel. In the first
years after the founding of the People's Republic, there were few
prospective diplomats with international experience. Premier Zhou
Enlai relied on a group of young people who had served under him in
various negotiations to form the core of the newly established
foreign ministry, and Zhou himself held the foreign ministry
portfolio until 1958. In the second half of the 1960s, China's
developing foreign affairs sector suffered a major setback during
the Cultural Revolution, when higher education was disrupted,
foreign-trained scholars and diplomats were attacked, all but one
Chinese ambassador (to Egypt) were recalled to Beijing, and the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs itself practically ceased functioning.
Since the early 1970s, the foreign affairs establishment has
been rebuilt, and by the late 1980s, foreign affairs personnel were
recruited from such specialized training programs as the ministry's
Foreign Affairs College, College of International Relations,
Beijing Foreign Languages Institute, and international studies
departments at major universities. Foreign language study still was
considered an important requirement, but it was increasingly
supplemented by substantive training in foreign relations. Foreign
affairs personnel benefited from expanded opportunities for
education, travel, and exchange of information with the rest of the
world. In addition, specialists from other ministries served in
China's many embassies and consulates; for example, the Ministry of
National Defense provided military attaches, the Ministry of
Foreign Economic Relations and Trade provided commercial officers,
and the Ministry of Culture and the State Education Commission
provided personnel in charge of cultural affairs.
Data as of July 1987
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