Veteran diplomat appointed as UN under-secretary-general

Chinese senior diplomat Li Junhua has been appointed as the United Nations' under-secretary-general for economic and social affairs.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres announced the appointment on Monday.

Li, who is currently China's ambassador to Italy and San Marino, will succeed Liu Zhenmin of China in the UN post, according to a statement issued by the UN secretary-general's office.

According to the statement, Li "brings to the position perspectives and visions on fostering multilateral economic and social cooperation, with a commitment to engage with all parties to further implement the 2030 Agenda, including dedication to serve member states".

The statement also said that Li has contributed to numerous meetings of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, the UN General Assembly and the Security Council, as well as other multilateral meetings, including those of the Group of 20, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the Asia-Europe Meeting and BRICS.

Li, who has a master's degree in international public policy from the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in the United States, has served in various capacities.

Born in 1962, he began his career in 1985 at China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was a minister counselor at China's Permanent Mission to the UN from 2003 to 2008.

He was China' s ambassador to Myanmar from 2010 to 2012 and served as director-general of the Department of International Organizations and Conferences at China's Foreign Ministry from 2013 to 2019.

In recent years, more Chinese officials have taken up senior positions at UN bodies, including Qu Dongyu, who took office in 2019 as director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, and Liu Hua, who has served as the director of the World Intellectual Property Organization's office in China since 2020.