A group of high-level Chinese officials plan to visit South Korea next week to discuss bilateral cooperation and explain policies under the new leadership, diplomats here said Friday.
The six-member delegation, led by Chen Baosheng, vice president of the Communist Party’s Central Party School, will arrive here Tuesday, according to the Chinese embassy in Seoul. Other officials include Han Baojiang, director of the school’s Institute for International Strategic Studies, and Zhao Bingbing, an executive from the party’s international department.
Their three-day trip comes less than a week after Xi Jinping took up the party’s helm as secretary general on Thursday, which Seoul officials say implies the “growing importance of relations between the two countries.” Xi will likely begin his presidency in March, replacing Hu Jintao.
The delegates are expected to meet with South Korea’s government officials, politicians and scholars. They include Ahn Ho-young, a vice foreign minister; Kim Byung-kook, chancellor of the Korean National Diplomatic Academy; and Kim Jong-hoon, a former trade minister and now a lawmaker of the ruling Saenuri Party.
Established in 1933, the Central Party School is the party’s supreme think tank and training platform for mid- and high-ranking cadres. The Beijing-based institution has traditionally been headed by China’s vice presidents including Xi, the current president since 2007.
Earlier in the day, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak sent a congratulatory cable to Xi, Cheong Wa Dae said.
In the letter, he said he hopes to “deepen and move further forward the strategic cooperative partnership, with the two countries’ diplomatic ties marking the 20th anniversary, and to continue to cooperate closely for peace and co-prosperity in the region.”
Lee added that he believes Xi will “exercise outstanding leadership for China’s national development and prosperity at this significant juncture when it moves forward for a new leap after successfully pursuing reform and openness over the past 30 years.”
By Shin Hyon-hee (
heeshin@heraldcorp.com)
