Wang Yi, head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, delivers a speech during the first meeting of the second session of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing June 3, 2008.

(Xinhua2008-06-03 10:40) BEIJING -- Wang Yi replaced Chen Yunlin as head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council and Taiwan Work Office of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

At a meeting of the mainland-based Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) on Tuesday, Chen Yunlin was elected as chief of the ARATS.

Wang Yi delivered a keynote speech at the meeting.

Wang was formerly the vice foreign minister and Chen was formerly head of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council and Taiwan Work Office of the the Communist Party of China Central Committee.

Wang Yi the man and his life

Wang Yi was born in October 1953 in Beijing and worked in the countryside in Northeast China as one of the hundreds of millions of urban youths sent to rural areas for reeducation between 1969 and 1977.

In March 1978, he entered Beijing No 2 Foreign Languages Institute to study Japanese. He was one among the 270,000 young people to succeed in the National College Entrance Examinations, which was resumed after more than 10 years.

Upon graduation, he joined the Foreign Ministry, rising in rank from staff member and attach and deputy division chief, to division chief of the Department of Asian Affairs between 1982 and 1989.

In 1989, he assumed the post of councilor of the Chinese embassy in Japan and later rose to councilor with the rank of a minister.

He returned in 1994, and was appointed deputy director general of the Department of Asian Affairs. In 1995, he became the department's director-general, and was then appointed assistant minister of Foreign Affairs in 1998.
He was promoted as vice-minister of Foreign Affairs in 2001.

On this post, he was especially noted for his role in smoothening the way for the Six-Party Talks. The Japan Times, in a special report, highlighted the fact that Wang Yi as the Chinese delegate "used language that referred to the need for parallel and synchronous steps to bridge the gap."

He is married, with a daughter.