Wednesday, May 27, 2009

China Background of Current UK Ambassador to China

Sir William Ehrman was appointed as Her Majesty's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China in January 2006.

Sir William joined the British Diplomatic Service in 1973 after graduating from Cambridge University with a first class Honours degree in Chinese. After language study in Hong Kong, he was posted to Beijing from 1976 to 1978. Sir William subsequently served in the UK Mission to United Nations before returning to Beijing in 1983 where he served as a member of the negotiating team on the future of Hong Kong. Sir William was later appointed Political Adviser to the Governor of Hong Kong from 1989 to 1993.


1 comment:

Jacques Bigras said...

Whenever you post the profile of a foreign diplomat with China credentials, I'm reminded of a Diplomatic Immunity episode that aired a few years ago. The topic was Canada's civil service and all the guests on the show agreed that the civil service no longer attracts qualified people. In our case, China specialists. James Travers was one of the guests on the show and he described the civil service as a "cold dead zone." It's likely that any Chinese who has had to deal with personel at a Canadian consulate or embassy would agree with their assessment.