China has a greater proportion of female legislators than does USA, so just bear it in mind the next time you think of the old cliche of the "submissive Asian female" ... I mentioned a few posts ago about the various wives of prominent Communist party leaders, so it's time to mention one of the up-and-coming Chinese women of this generation. It's Fu Ying, former ambassador to Australia and now promoted to be Chinese ambassador to Britain. It wouldn't surprise me at all if we see her representing China in the US in the future. The thing that impresses me so much about her is that she has an incredible power over the English language, and knows how to talk in a way that diffuses all the negative stereotypes about China. Most spokesmen for China act and talk like thuggish oafs ("you are mistaking black and white! We demand that you stop interfering in our internal affairs!"), which hardly does their country any good. Fu Ying, on the other hand, could sweet-talk a dog out of its bone. Here is a recent interview with her, though the text alone can't convey the way she delivers it. Even when she's saying stuff you completely disagree with, you want to believe her.

'No country in this world is perfect, and China also has its own problems at the current stage of development, thus through public diplomacy, we should make the outside world not only learn our achievements, but also our active attitude in facing and resolving our problems,' said Fu. She also said the public diplomacy needs 'quick and early response' so that China's voice can be heard by the international community at the first moment and the world know about the truth timely.
As I said, watch out for Fu Ying in the future.