Ji Chaozhu, a veteran Chinese diplomat who provided English translation for leaders including Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping and served as an undersecretary of the United Nations, died April 29 in Beijing. He was 90.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry announced the death but did not provide further details.
Mr. Ji also served as ambassador to Britain over the course of a lengthy career that began after he left Harvard University to return to China during the Korean War, when U.S. and Chinese troops engaged in combat.
After briefly studying at Tsinghua University, he was assigned by dint of his fluent English to assist with the peace talks at the Korean village of Panmunjom between the warring sides.
That led to a job as interpreter to Premier and Foreign Minister Zhou Enlai as well as Mao, with whom he appeared on the reviewing stand atop Tiananmen Gate when foreign guests were present.
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After Mao’s death, Mr. Ji took on a similar role with successor Deng. Having been dispatched by Zhou to set up an informal liaison office in the United States in 1973, Mr. Ji accompanied Deng to America after the establishment of formal diplomatic relations between the longtime antagonists in 1979 and later worked at the Chinese Embassy in Washington.
Share this articleShareThat was followed by assignments as ambassador to Fiji and Britain and five years as a U.N. undersecretary general for development support and management services, a position from which he retired in 1996.
His last post was as vice president of the All-China Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese, from which he stepped down in 2005.
Mr. Ji was born into a wealthy family in the northern Chinese province of Shanxi on July 30, 1929, and he moved with his family to the United States when he was 9. He and his brother attended private schools in New York, including Horace Mann in the Bronx.
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He developed the fluent English and knowledge of American culture that would prove him so valuable to China’s drive to confront the West and restore what it views at its traditional dominant role in Asia.
Like many high officials, Mr. Ji experienced various persecutions during the xenophobic 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, particularly because of his foreign education and the fact that his brother had remained in the United States. He chronicled his experiences in his autobiography, “The Man on Mao’s Right.”
Survivors include his wife and two sons.
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