Hua Chunying

Hua Chunying

Hua Chunying (华春莹) is the spokeswoman for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Hua was born into a local official family in Huai’an, Jiangsu Province, in 1970. Her father was the former secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of the Communist Party of China in Huai’an County and her mother was the deputy director of a local district. With a major in English, Hua graduated from Nanjing University at the age of 22.

According to her classmates, Hua was so diligent that she did not even spend one second on dating during her campus life. Upon graduation, she was the only one among her schoolmates who chose to work for the ministry in Beijing. Her former classmate Zhou Dandan said it would be really courageous for a single woman like Hua to work and live by herself in the northern city, which lies so far away from her hometown.

When entering the ministry as a graduate in 1992, Hua worked her way up from the bottom. She started out as an official in the Department of Western Europe and over a period of 20 years worked her way up to the position of spokeswoman. From 1995 onwards, she spent four years in Singapore as an attaché. From 2003 to 2010, Hua was promoted from her position as secretary to that of counselor in China’s Mission to the European Union.

Her two decades of work experience added points to her resume, gaining her a promotion to the position of ministry spokeswoman in November of 2012. Qin Gang, director of the Information Department, said her rich diplomatic experience and competent communication skills made her a suitable candidate for the job.

Hua is the fifth spokeswoman since the spokesperson system was established in the ministry back in 1983.

She is married and has a daughter.