By Diplomacy Journal Kayla Lee

China's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dai Bing has reportedly been nominated as the new Chinese ambassador to South Korea.

According to diplomatic sources on Nov. 13, the Chinese government will nominate Dai Bing as the new ambassador to South Korea and apply for an agrement (prior consent for diplomatic missions) with the Korean government.

The post has been vacant for four months following the departure of former Ambassador Xing Haiming in July. Born in 1967, Dai Bing graduated from Anhui Normal University's Foreign Languages Department and began his diplomatic career in 1995 with the African Affairs Department of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 

He has since served at the Embassy in South Africa, the Embassy in Singapore, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' North American and Oceanic Affairs Department, where he has been the Director of the Africa Department since 2017, and was appointed Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in 2020, a position he holds to date. 

Unlike former ambassador Xing Haiming, who is fluent in Korean, Dai Bing is not categorized as a “Korean peninsula person.”

While China has historically sent deputy chiefs of mission (vice-ministerial level) to the U.S., Japan, and North Korea, it has sent a lower-ranking counsellor to South Korea. 

In the case of former Ambassador Xing, he did not serve as head of the headquarters, but as deputy chief of mission in the Asia Bureau, and then as ambassador to Mongolia and then to South Korea. 

Dai, on the other hand, served as deputy ambassador to the United Nations for about four years before being named ambassador to South Korea. 

China's appointment of the ambassador to South Korea, which has been vacant for four months, is expected to be followed by China's agrément process for Kim Dae-ki, a former presidential chief secretary who was nominated by South Korea last month as its new ambassador to China.