Sha Zukang was named under-secretary-general to the United Nations on Friday, making him the seventh Chinese diplomat to hold the post since China took its seat at the world body in 1972.

Tang Mingzhao (1910-1998) took the job in 1972 and served for seven years, overseeing political affairs, de-colonization and trusteeship.

Tang, who had moved with his family to the American city San Francisco when still a child, returned to China in 1927 to attend senior high school in Tianjin and then Tsinghua University in Beijing.

In 1933, he continued his studies in the United States. He also founded a Chinese language newspaper there. He and his family returned to Beijing after the Korean War broke out.

Bi Jilong (1914-2006) filled the post for six years between 1979 and 1984 and headed the then Department of Technical Cooperation for Development, which has since been restructured several times and is now part of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Like Tang, Bi also lived in the US for many years and earned an MBA from George Washington University.

When he took up the position, the Department of Technical Cooperation for Development, which provided technical support and brought together experts from more than 100 UN member countries, was just several months old. He played a key role in making sure the department flourished.

During his tenure, he visited more than 60 countries around the world.

Xie Qimei (1922-) effectively took over where Bi left off when he was appointed under-secretary-general by Javier Perez de Cuellar. Xie ensured adequate technical assistance to developing countries during his tenure.

Xie started his diplomatic life as an interpreter and served in Britain and Sweden in the early part of his career. In 1973, he worked as the cultural councilor of the Liaison Office of the People's Republic of China to the US, and later he became the minister councilor of the Chinese Embassy after China and the US normalized diplomatic relations.

Ji Chaozhu (1929-) continued Xie's work when he was appointed to the post in 1992. Prior to his appointment, he had served as Chinese ambassador to Britain for three years.

In China, Ji, who graduated from Harvard University in the early 1950s, was known as one of the best interpreters China had ever had.

Jin Yongjian (1934-) held the post between 1996 and 2001.

His first State diplomatic mission overseas was in Kenya, and he would go on to become director-general of the Department of Africa. He started to engage in multilateral affairs in earnest in 1988 as director-general of the International Organizations and Conferences.

Before his official UN appointment, Jin also served as China's deputy permanent representative to the UN and permanent representative to China's UN Office at Geneva and Other International Organizations in Switzerland.

Chen Jian (1942-), who just stepped down after working with Kofi Annan for five years in charge of General Assembly Affairs and Conference Service, began his diplomatic career by working with affairs in relation to international organizations and conferences.

As an ambassador, he was China¡¯s deputy permanent representative to the UN for two years between 1992 and 1994.

Before he joined Annan¡¯s team, he was foreign ministry spokesman, assistant to the foreign minister and Chinese Ambassador to Japan.