Personal diplomacy

Wearing Chinese shoes, fascinated with Chinese cuisine and furniture, the European Union's (EU) ambassador to China, whose mother tongue is French and who is fluent in Italian and English, has been studying Chinese weekly since he began his duties here.

When Serge Abou first came to China to visit his son who was working in Suzhou industrial park for L'Oreal in 2002, he was astonished by China's fast development and natural beauty. When he finally set foot in China for professional reasons in 2005 he was strongly optimistic about a continued prosperous future for the China-EU relationship.

During Abou's term, China and the EU have made great strides from trade to education to energy.

European investment in China, scientific cooperation with hundreds of projects, many Chinese students studying in European universities, tourism and cultural exchanges, increasing numbers of high-level visits: all these elements have made the EU-China relationship a major factor on the international stage.

Abou has spent most of his career in the EU since 1974. He was the European Commission (EC) director for Trade Defense Policy from 1997 to 2001, and later served as the principal adviser to former EC president Romano Prodi until 2004.

Prior to his career in the international civil service, Abou chaired the Economic Studies Department of the Group AMA-Assurances in Paris, and lectured in mathematics and statistics at the University of Paris X. Abou obtained his degree in mathematics and a post-graduate diploma in econometrics from the Faculty of Science in Paris.

(China Daily 03/17/2008 page6)