On October 10, 2005 at the reception in celebration of the Day of German Unification, Ambassador Wang Shu, president of the China-Germany Friendship Association (CGFA), received a medal and certificate of Germany-China Friendship granted by the German Embassy in China. He is the first person to receive the medal.
The Germany-China Friendship Medal set up by the German Embassy in China is to commend those who have worked for a long time for or through some achievements made contributions to the development of Germany-China relationship in the cultural, scientific or political fields. The medal was awarded for the first time this year.
Wang Shu, former Chinese ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), played a creative role in and made important contributions to the establishment of China-Germany diplomatic relations. In recognition of his unremitting efforts to the promotion of understanding between the Chinese and German people and the deepening of the relations between the two countries, Dr. Volker Stanzel, German ambassador to China, presented the Germany-China Friendship Medal to him at the reception.
Before serving as vice foreign minister, Wang Shu has been a journalist for a long time. Before the founding of the People’s Republic of China, he worked as a military reporter of the Xinhua News Agency. After the founding of the PRC, he was an editor in the International Department of the Xinhua News Agency and a correspondent in the Xinhua branches in Pakistan, Guinea, Mali, Ghana, the Congo (Kinshasa) and Cuba successively. At the end of 1969 he began to work as a correspondent of the Xinhua Branch in Bonn. The articles he wrote on analyzing China’s relations with FRG attracted Chairman Mao’s and Premier Zhou’s attention. In September 1972 he was appointed representative of the Chinese Government to negotiate with the German Government and reached agreement on establishing diplomatic relations. Later he served as ambassador to Germany and to Austria. He has served as editor-in-chief of Red Flag and president of the China Institute of International Studies. In 1992 he was elected president of the CGFA.