Lu Kang (diplomat)

In 1993, Lu joined the Foreign Service and from 1993 to 1996 Lu served as a consultant and attaché for the Department of International Organizations and Conferences of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 1996 to 1999 he was assigned to the mission at the UN headquarters in New York City. Subsequently, from 1999 to 2000 he was Secretary of the Third Class in the Department of International Organizations and Conferences.

From 2000 to 2001 he attended the National University of Singapore, from which he graduated with a Master in Public Policy. As of 2001, he served as second-level legation secretary, deputy head of department, department head of the arms control and disarmament department, and served until 2006. From 2006 he was then Counselor in Dublin, Ireland until 2008.

From 2008 to 2010, he served as a Legation Counselor, Deputy Director-General of the Department of International Organizations and Conferences, and led the Chinese delegation to sessions of the Asia-Pacific Economic Community. As of 2010, he was Deputy General Director of the Department of North American and Oceanic Affairs. From 2012 to 2015, he served as Minister in Washington, D.C. Since 2015, he has been Director-General of the Information Division, a post which includes the function of Speaker of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China.[1]

On March 14, 2016, he spoke about the 2001 Sino-Russian Treaty of Friendship as well as Foreign Minister Wang Yi's visit to Russia. Lu also spoke about Eurasian Economic Union, the alignment of the Silk Road Economic Belt and missile tests on Korean Peninsula, as well as resumption of six-party talks regarding those tests. Lu was very critical of the THAAD defense system that was introduced to South Korea by the United States to defend it against possible nuclear attack from DPRK, citing a "direct harm [of] the strategic security interests [for] China and Russia".[2]

Regarding Syrian Civil War, Lu commented that he supports Geneva peace talks and blasted China-India Line of Actual Control crossing as media hype.[2]

In 2017, he stated that the Sino-British Joint Declaration "no longer had any practical significance" with regards to the governance of Hong Kong, a view that was disputed by the British Foreign Office.[3]

On July 18, 2019, he was appointed director of the Foreign Ministry North American and Oceanian Affairs Department of the People's Republic of China.[4] He says China has "freedom of religion".[5]