China appoints Kong Xuanyou as ambassador to Japan

Deputy Foreign Minister Kong Xuanyou, a Japan expert who is in charge of Beijing’s relations with its Asian neighbours, is likely to succeed Cheng Yonghua, who has served as Chinese Ambassador to Japan from 2010 to May this year.

Kong hails from China's northernmost province of Heilongjiang and majored in Japanese at Shanghai International Studies University. Since joining the Foreign Ministry, he has worked in Japan for more than 10 years.

Kong also served as China's ambassador to Vietnam and oversaw Asian affairs. He later became the point person for matters involving the Korean Peninsula.

From 2005 to 2011, he served as minister-counselor at the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo.

The first job for Kong in Tokyo will be to lay out plans for Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Osaka in June for the G20 Summit. Xi is also scheduled to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on the sidelines./.