List of ambassadors of the United Kingdom to China explained

Post:
British Ambassador
to the People’s Republic of China
Insignia:Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government) (2022).svg
Insigniasize:120px
Insigniacaption:Royal Arms of His Majesty's Government
Flagsize:200
Flagborder:yes
Reports To:Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Incumbent:Caroline Wilson
Incumbentsince:September 2020
Style:Her Excellency
Residence:Chaoyang District, Beijing
Formation:1840
Ambassador to Imperial China

1910
Ambassador to the Republic of China1950
Ambassador to the People's Republic of China

Inaugural:Frederick Wright-Bruce
First Ambassador to Imperial China

Sir John Jordan
First Ambassador to the Republic of ChinaSir John Hutchinson
First Ambassador to the People's Republic of China

Website:British Embassy - Beijing

The British Ambassador to China is the United Kingdom's foremost diplomatic representative in the People's Republic of China, and in charge of the UK's diplomatic mission in China. The ambassador's official title is His Brittanic Majesty's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China.[1]

The UK recognized the People's Republic of China in 1950, although the PRC did not agree to the exchange of ambassadors until 1972. Prior to this, the United Kingdom had sent ministers to the Qing Empire and variously ministers and ambassadors to the Republic of China. The Embassy offices have been located in Peking (Beijing), Nanking (Nanjing), or both. Currently the British Ambassador to China is Caroline Wilson, she became ambassador in September 2020.

List of heads of mission

1792–1794: George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney1815-1817: William Pitt Amherst, 1st Earl Amherst

Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary to Imperial China (during the First Opium War)

NameTenure beginTenure endBritish Monarch
Sir George ElliotFebruary 1840November 1840Queen VictoriaDaoguang Emperor
Sir Charles ElliotNovember 184012 August 1841

Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary to Imperial China (held by the Governor of Hong Kong)

NameTenure beginTenure endBritish MonarchChinese Emperor
Sir Henry Pottinger12 August 18418 May 1844Queen VictoriaDaoguang Emperor
Sir John Francis Davis8 May 184418 March 1848
Sir George Bonham18 March 18481853
Sir John Bowring20 December 185317 April 1857Xianfeng Emperor

Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary to Imperial China

NameTenure beginTenure endChinese Emperor
The Earl of Elgin18571860Xianfeng Emperor
Sir Frederick Bruce7 November 186019 June 1864
Sir Thomas Francis Wade19 June 18647 December 1865Tongzhi Emperor
Sir Rutherford Alcock7 December 18651 November 1869
Hugh Fraser1 November 186928 November 1869
Sir Thomas Francis Wade28 November 18696 November 1876
Hugh Fraser6 November 187629 June 1879Guangxu Emperor
Sir Thomas Francis Wade29 June 187914 August 1882
Thomas Grosvenor14 August 188217 September 1883
Sir Harry Smith Parkes died in office28 September 188321 March 1885
Sir Nicholas Roderick O'Conor (chargé d'affaires)22 March 188515 June 1886
Sir John Walsham, Bt15 June 188628 September 1892
William Nelthorpe Beauclerk chargé d'affaires28 September 189219 November 1892
Sir Nicholas Roderick O'Conor19 November 1892September 1895
William Nelthorpe Beauclerk chargé d'affairesSeptember 189524 April 1896
Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald[2] 24 April 189625 October 1900
Sir Ernest Mason Satow25 October 19001906Edward VII
Walter Beaupré Townley chargé d'affaires3 December 190221 August 1903
Sir John Jordan19 September 190612 March 1910
William Grenfell Max-Muller12 March 191028 November 1910Xuantong Emperor

Envoys Extraordinary and Ministers Plenipotentiary to the Republic of China

NameTenure beginTenure endBritish Monarch
Sir John Jordan28 November 19101 March 1920George VSun Yat-sen→Yuan Shikai→Li Yuanhong→Feng Guozhang→Xu Shichang
Sir Beilby Alston1 March 19201922Xu Shichang→Zhou Ziqi→Li Yuanhong
Robert Clive chargé d'affaires19221922
Sir James Ronald Macleay192220 December 1926Li Yuanhong→Gao Lingwei→Cao Kun→Huang Fu→Duan Qirui→Hu Weide→Yan Huiqing→Du Xigui→Wellington Koo
Sir Miles Lampson20 December 19263 September 1933Wellington Koo→Zhang Zuolin→Chiang Kai-shek→Lin Sen
Edward Ingram5 May 19323 September 1933Lin Sen
Hon. Sir Alexander Cadogan3 September 193319 May 1935

Ambassadors to the Republic of China

NameTenure beginTenure endBritish Monarch
Hon. Sir Alexander Cadogan15 June 19355 April 1936George VLin Sen
Sir Robert George Howe5 April 19362 September 1936Edward VIII
Sir Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen23 September 193620 December 1937
Sir Archibald Clark Kerr23 September 193616 January 1942George VI
Sir Horace James Seymour16 January 194223 May 1946
Ralph Stevenson21 June 19461948Chiang Kai-shek

Chargés d'affaires to the People's Republic of China

The United Kingdom recognized Communist China in January 1950 and posted a chargé d'affaires in the new capital of Beijing. However, China was unwilling to exchange ambassadors until the British consulate in Taipei was withdrawn in 1972.[3]

NameTenure beginTenure endBritish monarchChinese leader
John Hutchison[4] 12 October 19491951George VIMao Zedong
Leo Lamb[5] 13 February 19511953
Humphrey Trevelyan22 August 19531955Elizabeth II
Con O'Neill26 June 19551957
Duncan Wilson19571959
Michael Stewart28 August 19591962
Terence Garvey19621965
Donald Hopson19651968
Percy CradockAugust 1968February 1969
John Denson196918 November 1971

Ambassadors to the People's Republic of China

NameTenure beginTenure endBritish MonarchParamount leader
Sir John Addis26 January 197217 June 1974Elizabeth IIMao Zedong
Sir Edward Youde29 August 19741978
Sir Percy Cradock15 June 19781984Hua Guofeng
Sir Richard Evans23 January 19841988Deng Xiaoping
Sir Alan Donald26 May 19881991
Sir Robin McLaren20 June 19911994
Sir Leonard Appleyard24 September 19941997Jiang Zemin
Sir Anthony Galsworthy29 December 19972002
Sir Christopher Hum4 April 20022006
Sir William Ehrman15 March 20062010Hu Jintao
Sir Sebastian Wood3 March 20102015
Dame Barbara Woodward14 April 20152020Xi Jinping
Dame Caroline WilsonSeptember 2020

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Caroline Wilson appointed as Her Majesty's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China .
  2. E. W. Edwards, 'MacDonald, Sir Claude Maxwell (1852–1915)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, Jan 2008 http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/34699, accessed 5 November 2008
  3. Web site: China Exchange of Ambassadors. . 13 March 1972.
  4. The Diplomatic Service List 1966, p. 120.
  5. Hoare, J.E., Embassies in the East, 1999, 2013 Routledge. "Chapter 5: Last years in the old Legation."

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