China’s outspoken foreign ministry press department chief Hua Chunying promoted to vice-minister
- Hua, who has been a foreign ministry spokeswoman since 2012, is the youngest of the five foreign vice-ministers and the only woman
- She is seen to embody China’s Wolf Warrior diplomacy, particularly on topics such as the pandemic and US domestic and foreign policy
After her promotion Hua, 54, who has been a foreign ministry spokeswoman since 2012, is the youngest of the five foreign vice-ministers and the only woman among them.
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She was promoted to assistant foreign minister and the director general of the ministry’s press department in 2021. According to the foreign ministry website, she still leads the press department, although it is not clear whether she will retain this position following her promotion.
Hua is seen to embody China’s Wolf Warrior diplomacy, particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic when she called on the US to open up its lab in Fort Detrick, Maryland, for investigation in response to accusations from the Trump administration that a lab in Wuhan was the origin of the virus.
On X, she often blasts Western officials over their accusations and criticism against China. In 2020, she exchanged a series of tweets with then-US State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus, rebuking the American’s criticism that China’s Covid-19 policies lacked transparency.
