(HOU JUN)

Zhang Yesui, China's new Ambassador to the United States, arrived in Washington, D.C. to take up his post on March 14.

Zhang is the ninth top Chinese diplomat in the United States since the two countries established diplomatic relations in 1979. He replaced Zhou Wenzhong.

Zhang, 56, has been in the diplomatic service for 34 years and is known as a specialist in multilateral diplomacy. Before his latest appointment, he had been China's Permanent Representative to the UN since 2008. Between 2003 and 2008, Zhang was vice minister of foreign affairs, whose areas of responsibility included policy research, Africa, Europe, North America and Oceania affairs, arms control and disarmament, international treaties and law.

Zhang had also served as director general of the Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and assistant minister of foreign affairs. He studied at London School of Economics between 1975 and 1976.

Zhang's wife, Chen Naiqing, was the former Ambassador to Norway and special envoy on Korean Peninsula affairs.