The late Ambassador Wu Jianmin was Executive Vice Chairman of China Institute for Innovation and Development Strategy, a Senior Research Fellow of the Counselors’ office of the State Council of China, a Member of the Foreign Policy Advisory Committee of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, a Member and Vice President of the European Academy of Sciences, and Honorary President of the International Bureau of Exhibitions (BIE).
From 2003 to 2008, Wu served as President of China Foreign Affairs University, Executive Vice President of the China National Association for International Studies, Vice Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Spokesman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. He served as China’s Ambassador to France from 1998 to 2003, from 1996 to 1998 as Ambassador of China to the UN in Geneva, and as Ambassador of China to the Netherlands from 1994 to 1995. Before that, he was Director General of the Information Department and Spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Deputy Chief at China’s embassy in Belgium and its mission to the European Community in Brussels, and Counselor at China’s mission to the United Nations in New York.
From 2003 to 2007, Ambassador Wu served as President of the International Bureau of Expositions (BIE), making him the first Asian to take up the post. He graduated from the Department of French at Beijing Foreign Studies University and from 1965 to 1971 interpreted for Chairman Mao Zedong and Premier Zhou Enlai. In 1971, he became a member of China's first delegation to the United Nations. He was awarded by French President Jacques Chirac the honor of Grand Officier of la Légion d’Honneur in 2003.
Wu was killed in a car wreck on June 18, 2016, in Wuhan, China.
