Waiting for a thaw in the freeze

YOU SANG-CHUL
The author is the CEO of China Lab.

A new foreign minister is likely to be appointed in China. Rumors are spreading that Liu Jianchao will be promoted to the post of foreign minister, currently being served by Wang Yi, who replaced Qin Gang. If true, it will be a blessing in disguise for China.

A traditional, generous politician is returning instead of a pugnacious one. Liu Jianchao, who is turning 60 in February, will be officially appointed at the Two Sessions — the yearly plenary meetings of the National People’s Congress and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative — in Beijing in March.

Born in Jilin Province, Liu studied English at the Beijing Foreign Studies University and joined the Foreign Ministry, and he has many titles for which he was the youngest. He became the youngest spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry at age 37 in 2001 and became the youngest assistant minister at age 49 in 2013. As these titles prove his competency, Liu is considered to be sufficiently skilled and qualified to be the foreign minister. Serving as the “mouth of China” for nine years as a Foreign Ministry spokesperson, he also served as Chinese Ambassador to the Philippines and Indonesia.

Liu worked as a local government official in two provinces, Liaoning and Zhejiang, and gained central government experience as the deputy director of the state bureau of national corruption prevention. He also has experience working at three major foreign policy-related ministries in China; he not only served as the assistant minister at the Foreign Ministry and the deputy head of the party’s Central Foreign Affairs Office, but also serves as the head of the International department of the Chinese Communist Party.

Liu is good at both civil and military functions. When he visited the United States, which served as his preliminary meeting with the United States, he had a special official meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Tony Blinken.

The fact that Qin Gang never met Blinken while serving as China’s Ambassador to the United States for one and a half years shows how Washington cares about treating Liu. Why? Liu is far from the wolf-warrior diplomats who tarnished China’s image over the last few years. He continues the legacy of delicate and friendly Zhou Enlai diplomacy. He is popular among Western diplomats stationing in Beijing.

Liu also has deep ties with Korea. He frequently socialized with the Korean correspondents when he was serving as spokesperson, and he was caring enough to check on my health. When he was the assistant minister of foreign policy, he directly oversaw the Korean Peninsula affairs. In other words, he is well-versed in inter-Korean relations.

Time will tell if his promotion can be interpreted as an adjustment to the aggressive diplomatic line of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul has something in common with Liu, as they both studied at Oxford. I expect spring may come to the frozen Korea-China relations if they start a conversation by recalling their time on campus.