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