Ｃｈｉｎｅｓｅ Ｄｉｐｌｏｍａｔ Ｗｒｉｔｅｓ Ｂｉｏｇｒａｐｈｙ ｆｏｒ Ｊｅａｎ Ｐｉｎｇ

Ｚｈｕａｎｇ　Ｑｉａｎｈｕｉ

Paying a visit to Jean Ping, then foreign minister of Gabon during the Chinese Spring Festival in 2003, Fan Zhenshui as Chinese ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Gabon promised to Jean Ping that he would write a biography on him, a successful and influential Gabonese with half-Chinese parentage.

Fan Zhenshui assumed the position in October, 2002. At that time, Jean Ping was the Foreign Minister of the African country. Pings father Cheng Zhiping was from Wenzhou, now a prosperous port city in southern Zhejiang Province. Cheng Zhiping came to Gabon for a new life. He had never returned to China. Jean Ping, however, has visited his ancestral roots in Wenzhou three times.

While Ambassador Fan and other Chinese diplomats were celebrating the Chinese New Year together with the Ping family, they chatted about Chinese culture. Fan admired the foreign minister for his talents and diplomatic achievements. Fan was so inspired that he proposed to Jean Ping that he would write about his legendary adventure and career as a career public servant and introduce him to Chinese readers and overseas Chinese.

Arrangements were made. Fan Zhenshui could visit the office of Jean Ping freely. As Jean Ping was busy doing his job, the ambassador adjusted his interviews to the foreign ministers work schedule. The ambassador invited Jean Ping to visit his ancestral roots in Wenzhou. The ambassador was invited to visit the town in Gabon where Jean Ping was born. As interviews went on, Fan gradually accumulated materials for the planned biography.

Then two things happened. First, Jean Ping was chosen to be President of the fifty-ninth session of the United Nations General Assembly in 2004. The one-year term kept Jean Ping extremely busy as he continued to work as the Gabonese foreign minister. While Jean Ping worked at UN, the ambassador got the latters daily schedule and made necessary arrangements for interviews over phone if necessary. The only time available for an interview would be after seven oclock in the evening in New York and before he would go out for diplomatic occasions. It would be one oclock in the morning in Libreville, the capital of Gabon. The ambassador would get up a little bit earlier before one oclock and then make a call to Jean Ping and ask questions he had previously prepared.

Second, in 2005, Fan was transferred to work as Chinese ambassador to Congo, another African country. Fan still managed to collect materials for the biography.

In March 2007, Fan came back to Beijing and retired as a diplomat. And he was ready to write the biography. Just before he started writing, his health suddenly worsened. He was told that he needed to avoid doing anything that might strain him. The diagnosis was most discouraging.

But Fan decided to go ahead with the biography. He flew to Washington to join his wife, a diplomatic working at the Chinese embassy there. He carried all the materials with him. As soon as he settled down, he began to write.

Fan Zhenshui had written four books before. This one was most exhausting. He was so dedicated to the writing of the 11-chapter book that he had no time for sightseeing the blooming spring of Washington. He shut himself up in a room and wrote. He had difficulty holding the pen. He persisted. After finding that his fingers could no longer hold a pen, he shifted to computer. When he had problem speaking, he communicated with Jean Ping through mobile short messages. He kept writing in Washington. When his wife retired in November 2007, the couple came back to Beijing. With the help of his wife, Fan continued to write. The book was at last completed at the end of year 2008. The book is 150,000 Chinese characters long.

Jean Peng was elected as Chairperson of the Commission of African Union at an AU summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on February 1, 2008. He officially took the post on April 28, 2008. When in Beijing to attend the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games, Jean Ping wanted to meet with Fan Zhenshui, but Fan was too ill to see him. The retired ambassador was almost totally paralyzed. When the book was completed, Jean Ping had been the chairperson for more than half a year. So Fan Zhenshui got a new name for the biography: Chairperson of the Commission of the African Union: A Black Chinese. □