Yang Jiechi

Yang Jiechi (born May 1950) is a high-ranking Chinese politician and lifelong professional diplomat. He was the tenth Foreign Minister of the People's Republic of China, between 2007 and 2013. He joined the inner circle of the State Council in 2013, as a State Councilor under Premier Li Keqiang. In this capacity, he serves as one of the most prominent architects of China's foreign policy. Yang spent much of his professional life in the United States, where he served as Chinese Ambassador from 2001 to 2005.

Early life and education

Yang was born in Shanghai in May 1950. He graduated from Shanghai Foreign Language School and attended the University of Bath and the London School of Economics from 1973 to 1975. He received a PhD in history from Nanjing University.

Career

He previously served as a diplomat in the United States, beginning as a Second Secretary in 1983 and later as Ambassador from 2001 to 2005, and as Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs responsible for Latin America and Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. During the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989, Yang accompanied Wan Li, the chairman of the National People's Congress, on a trip to North America.

State councilor

The state councillor (Chinese: 国务委员; pinyin: guówù wěiyuán) is a powerful position within the State Council of the People's Republic of China, i.e. the executive organ of China's central government (comparable to a cabinet). It ranks immediately below the Vice-Premiers and above the Ministers of various departments. The position was created during the May 1982 restructuring of the State Council, when eleven state councillors were appointed, ten of whom were vice premiers until then.

Role

In theory, state councilors are to assist the Premier and Vice-Premiers to oversee various government portfolios. They can also represent the State Council (and in turn, China's government) on foreign visits. state councilors are part of a Standing Committee of the State Council, alongside the Premier, Vice-Premiers, and the Secretary General of the State Council. The organ holds weekly meetings. In practice, a state councilor's portfolios can be very wide-ranging. State councilors often accompany China's higher dignitaries on trips abroad - as was the case with State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan from 2003–08, and Dai Bingguo from 2008–present. Dai also became China's representative at the 2009 G8 Summit in Italy when President Hu Jintao decided to cut short his attendance to return to China in order to deal with the July 2009 Urumqi riots.

China Seas

The China Seas consist of a series of marginal seas in the Western Pacific Ocean, around China. They are the major components signifying the transition from the continent of Asia to the Pacific Ocean. They have been described in terms of their collective vastness and complexity:

Seas included in the China Seas are:

References

South China

South China (simplified Chinese: 华南; traditional Chinese: 華南; pinyin: huá nán) is a geographical and cultural region that covers the southernmost part of China. Its precise meaning varies with context.

Definitions

In the broadest sense, Southern China can denote the entire portion of the country south of the line demarcated by the Qin Mountains and Huai River. Between 1945 and 1949, the Republic of China defined Guizhou, Yunnan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Fujian and Taiwan as the "Seven Provinces of South China" (simplified Chinese: 华南七省; traditional Chinese: 華南七省; pinyin: huá nán qī shěng). The term can also be used to denote the Lingnan region; but today, the phrase is generally used to refer only to Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong and Macau (historically also known as Liangguang). Defined as such, South China is also contained within South Central China.

Administrative divisions

See also

South China Sea

The South China Sea is a marginal sea that is part of the Pacific Ocean, encompassing an area from the Singapore and Malacca Straits to the Strait of Taiwan of around 3,500,000 square kilometres (1,400,000 sq mi). The area's importance largely results from one-third of the world's shipping sailing through its waters and that it is believed to hold huge oil and gas reserves beneath its seabed.

It is located

The minute South China Sea Islands, collectively an archipelago, number in the hundreds. The sea and its mostly uninhabited islands are subject to competing claims of sovereignty by several countries. These claims are also reflected in the variety of names used for the islands and the sea.

Names

South China Sea is the dominant term used in English for the sea, and the name in most European languages is equivalent, but it is sometimes called by different names in China's neighboring countries, often reflecting historical claims to hegemony over the sea.