The death of the Chinese diplomat Wu Jianmin in a car accident in Wuhan on the 18th June robs China of one of its most moderate, experienced senior foreign policy thinkers. A native of the south east city of Chongqing, Wu, who was 77, had studied French during the 1960s, and served as a translator for Mao Zedong and other senior leaders in the final years of the Cultural Revolution era, participating in the first ever delegation sent from the People’s Republic to the United Nations in 1971 when it assumed its seat there. After the Reform and Opening up period started from 1978, he shifted over to more formal diplomatic work, serving as the ambassador to the United Nations, the Netherlands, and, most significantly, France.
中國外交官吳建民6月18日在武漢因車禍喪生，使中國失去了最溫和且經驗豐富的資深外交政策思想家之一。現年77歲的吳建民在重慶市出生并長大，上世紀60年代學習法語，曾在文革時代的最后幾年為毛澤東和其他高級領導人當過翻譯，尤其是在1971年中華人民共和國獲得聯合國席位后成為中國常駐聯合國的第一批工作人員之一。1978年中國進入改革開放時期后，他調任更為正式的外交工作，先后擔任中國駐聯合國、荷蘭以及（責任最重大的）法國大使。