The Ambassador of China, H.E. Mr. Zhou Wenzhong discusses China and the United States
Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong served previously as Assistant and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs in Beijing. He was earlier China's Ambassador to Australia, as well as to Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda, He has previous experience in the U.S. as Minister in the Embassy in Washington DC and Consul General in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Ambassador Wenshong studied at Bath University and the London School of Economics in England.
Bio
Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong
Ambassador Zhou previously served in Washington as deputy chief of mission of the Chinese Embassy in Washington (1995-98) and on a prior occasion as attache and then third secretary (1978-83). In addition, he was China's vice minister of foreign affairs (2003-05) and assistant foreign affairs minister (2001-03), as well as ambassador to Australia (1998-2001) and to Barbados and Antigua and Barbuda (1990-93).
Ambassador Zhou also served as consul general of China in Los Angeles (1994-95), deputy consul general in San Francisco (1987-90), deputy director-general of the North American and Oceanic Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1993-94), as well as second secretary, deputy division director, and division director of the Department of Translation and Interpretation at the Ministry (1983-87).
Political party founded in China in 1921 by Chen Duxiu, Li Dazhao, Mao Zedong, and others. It grew directly from the reform-oriented May Fourth Movement and was aided from the start by Russian organizers. Under Russian guidance, the CCP held its First Congress in 1921; the Russians also invited many members to the Soviet Union for study and encouraged cooperation with the Chinese Nationalist Party. This cooperation lasted until 1927, when the communists were expelled. CCP fortunes declined rapidly after several failed attempts at uprisings, and the few members that remained fled to central China to regroup, where they formed a Soviet-style government in Jiangxi. Harried by the Nationalist army under Chiang Kai-shek, the CCP forces undertook the Long March to northwestern China, when Mao Zedong became the party's undisputed leader. War with the Japanese broke out in 1937 and led to a temporary alliance between the CCP and the Nationalists. After World War II, the CCP participated in U.S.-mediated talks with the Nationalists, but in 1947 the talks were abandoned and civil war resumed. The CCP increased its already strong rural base through land redistribution, and in 1949 it took control of mainland China. In the decades that followed, the party undertook extensive reforms, but pragmatic policies alternated with revolutionary campaigns—notably the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. After Mao's death in 1976, the party moved steadily toward economic liberalization. Today the CCP sets policy, which government officials implement. The organs at the top of the CCP are the Political Bureau, the Political Bureau's Standing Committee, and the Secretariat. See alsoLin Biao; Zhou Enlai; Deng Xiaoping.
Island, western Pacific Ocean, off southeastern China, and since 1949 the principal component of the Republic of China (which also includes Matsu and Quemoy islands and the Pescadores). Area: 13,973 sq mi (36,190 sq km), including its outlying islands. Population (2009 est.): 23,069,000. Seat of government: Taipei. Han Chinese constitute virtually the entire population. Languages: Mandarin Chinese (official); Taiwanese, Fukien, and Hakka dialects also spoken. Religions: Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Christianity. Currency: new Taiwan dollar. Lying 100 mi (160 km) off the Chinese mainland, Taiwan is composed mainly of mountains and hills, with densely populated coastal plains in the west. It has one of the highest population densities in the world and is a leading industrial power of the Pacific Rim, with an economy based on manufacturing industries, international trade, and services. Leading exports include nonelectrical and electrical machinery, electronics, textile products, plastic articles, and transportation equipment. Taiwan is a major producer of Chinese-language motion pictures. It is a multiparty republic with one legislative branch; its head of state is the president, and the head of government is the premier. Known to the Chinese as early as the 7th century, the island of Taiwan was widely settled by them early in the 17th century. In 1646 the Dutch seized control of the island, only to be ousted in 1661 by a large influx of Chinese refugees, supporters of the Ming dynasty. Taiwan fell to the Manchu in 1683 and was not open to Europeans again until 1858. In 1895 it was ceded to Japan following the first Sino-Japanese War. A Japanese military centre in World War II, it was frequently bombed by U.S. planes. After Japan's defeat it was returned to China, which was then governed by the Nationalists. When the communists took over mainland China in 1949, the Nationalist Party government fled to Taiwan and made it their seat of government, with Gen. Chiang Kai-shek as president. Since then, both the Nationalist government and the People's Republic of China (mainland China) have considered Taiwan a province of China. In 1954 Chiang and the U.S. signed a mutual defense treaty, and Taiwan received U.S. support for almost three decades, developing its economy in spectacular fashion. It was recognized as the representative of China in the UN until 1971, when it was replaced there by the People's Republic. Martial law in Taiwan, in effect since 1949, was lifted in 1987, and travel restrictions with mainland China were removed in 1988. In 1989 opposition parties were legalized. The relationship with the mainland grew increasingly close in the 1990s, but it again became strained over the future status of Taiwan after Chen Shui-bian (Ch'en Shui-pian) was elected president in 2000.
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