China appoints ex-india envoy as vice-foreign min

BEIJING: Former ambassador Sun Weidong, who until October was Beijing’s envoy to India, has been appointed a vice-foreign minister, state media reported on Tuesday, indicating that the senior Chinese diplomat will play an important role in framing China’s policies in South Asia in the years ahead.

“Sun Weidong, who had just finished his 3+ year tenure as Chinese Ambassador to India, was appointed as deputy foreign minister, according to China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security,” state-run tabloid Global Times said in a post on Twitter on Tuesday.

Sun’s predecessor Luo Zhaohui was also promoted as viceforeign minister after returning to China in 2019.

Sun, 56, was China’s India ambassador to India from 2019 until 2022, a period that saw bilateral ties plunge to their lowest in decades because of the ongoing border tension along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh and the Galwan Valley clash in June 2020.

He had served as counsellor at the Chinese embassy in New Delhi between 2005 and 2008.