Career diplomat who was China's ambassador to the United States from 2013 to 2021, longer than anyone before him, after serving as ambassador to Japan and vice foreign minister.
Cui Tiankai was one of the longest-serving Chinese ambassadors to the United States.
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history
He started out as a language specialist: he studied English in Shanghai from 1974 to 1977, and in 1981 he began work as a translator at the United Nations Secretariat.