China's foreign ministry replaces Asian affairs chief

China's foreign ministry has replaced the head of its Asian Affairs Department, appointing Shen Minjuan to the post in place of Liu Jinsong, the ministry's website showed.

• Shen, 54, has been China's ambassador to Mongolia since 2023. The Chinese embassy in Mongolia held a farewell reception for her on July 24, it said in a statement.

• No official announcement has yet been made of Liu's next posting.

• Liu, 54, worked as a Chinese diplomat in Thailand, Japan, Britain and India. He was the Chinese ambassador to Afghanistan from 2018 to 2019.

• He also served in China's Taiwan Affairs Office.

• Liu's tenure as the Chinese foreign ministry's Asian affairs chief saw the deterioration of Beijing's ties with Tokyo and a series of diplomatic confrontations between the two, with China tightening rare earth exports to Japan.

• The entrenched dispute came after Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's remarks about Taiwan angered China in late 2025.

Reuters

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