Wu Hailong was born in February 1955 in Chayouqian Banner, Inner Mongolia. He enrolled at Beijing Foreign Studies University in 1974 and graduated in 1978. Upon graduation, he entered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China, beginning his career as a staff member in the Department of International Organizations.[3]
In the early stages of his diplomatic career, Wu served at China's Permanent Mission to the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, where he held posts ranging from attaché to third secretary. He later returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, continuing his work in the Department of International Organizations and gradually rising through the ranks to deputy division director. From 1988 to 1992, Wu served at the Chinese Mission to the United Nations in New York, where he was promoted from second secretary to first secretary. He subsequently held senior positions within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including deputy director-general of the Department of International Organizations. Between 1996 and 1999, he was appointed counsellor at the Chinese Embassy in Israel.[4]
Wu Hailong later served as deputy director-general of the Department of International Organizations and concurrently acted as China's APEC Senior Official. From 2001 to 2004, he was deputy commissioner of the Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. He was then appointed ambassador and permanent representative to the United Nations Office at Vienna and other international organizations, while also serving as China's permanent representative to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the International Atomic Energy Agency.[5]
From 2006 to 2009, Wu served as director-general of the Department of International Organizations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He was subsequently appointed assistant minister of foreign affairs, during which time he also served concurrently as vice president of the Red Cross Society of China. Between 2011 and 2014, he was China's head of mission and ambassador to the European Union.[6][7]
From 2014 to 2016, Wu served as ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary and permanent representative of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other international organizations in Switzerland.[8] He later assumed leadership roles within the Chinese People's Institute of Foreign Affairs, serving first as president and then as party secretary and president.[9] Since 2019, he has served as president of the China Public Diplomacy Association.[10][2]
