Hua Chunying
Hua Chunying (; born 24 April 1970) is a Chinese official and former diplomat serving as spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China since 2012 and as the Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2021. Hua was the fifth spokeswoman and 27th spokesperson since the position was established in the ministry in 1983. Biography. Hua was born in Huai'an, Jiangsu. Both her parents were officials; her father was formerly secretary of the Discipline Inspection Commission of the Chinese Communist Party in Huai'an County, and her mother was the deputy director of a  local district. She graduated from Nanjing University in 1992, where she majored in English language at the School of Foreign Languages. After graduation, Hua was appointed as an official to the Department of Western Europe. Over a period of 20 years, Hua worked her way up to the position of spokeswoman. After 1995, she spent four years in Singapore as an attaché. During 2003 to 2010, she was promoted from her position as secretary to that of counselor in China's Mission to the European Union. In 2012, Hua was promoted to deputy director of the Foreign Ministry Information Department  of the People's Republic of China. She serves concurrently as the spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China. In February 2018, during a prolonged absence at the Foreign Ministry, there were reports Hua was investigated for storing large amounts of U.S. dollars in her home. On March 1, 2018, Hua returned to work as Foreign Ministry spokeswoman. On July 18, 2019, she was appointed director of the Foreign Ministry Information Department of the People's Republic of China, succeeding Lu Kang. She became the second female director-general of the Information Department  after Gong Peng, the very first director-general of this department. In October 2021, she was promoted to assistant minister of foreign affairs. Hua will be overseeing the ministry’s work related to information, protocol and translation. Commentary. Hua has criticized the US plea to release Pu Zhiqiang saying "I think lots of people have the same feeling with me, that some people in the United States have hearts that are too big and hands that are too long. Washington should address human rights problems at home and stop trying to be the world's policeman or judge." In 2021 , she compared the 2021 storming of the United States Capitol with the 2019 storming of the Legislative Council. COVID-19 conspiracy theory. In January 2021, Hua renewed questions about the SARS-CoV-2 virus originating in the United States at the Fort Detrick Army Medical Command Installation. This conspiracy theory quickly went trending on the Chinese social media platform Weibo, and Hua continued to cite evidence on Twitter, while asking the government of the United States to open up Fort Detrick for further investigation to determine if it is the source of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Social media. In February 2021, Hua  said that many Western officials use Weibo and Wechat, and asked "Why can't Chinese people use Twitter or Facebook when foreigners can use Chinese social media platforms?" Twitter and Facebook have been banned by the mainland Chinese government since 2009. Personal life. Hua Chunying enjoys playing tennis.