Han Nien-lung was born in Jen-huai, Kweichow, which is about 25 miles west of Tsun-i and lies directly astride the route which Mao Tse-tung’s First Front Army followed during the Long March, Mao and his men were in that area in the early part of 1935.
Although there is no corroborating information, it is possible that Han, then a young man of about 25, might have been recruited into the Red Armies as they passed through his native area. In any event, he apparently was a military figure of moderate stature during the Sino-Japanese War because in January 1946 he was assigned to the Peking Executive Headquarters with the rank of a colonel.
The headquarters had been established in January 1946 to supervise the truce worked out (under the auspices of American diplomat-general George C. Marshall) between the Chinese Nationalists and Communists. From the headquarters in Peking, a number of special teams were sent into the field to keep the peace. For a time in 1946 Han served as the Communist representative to the 17th team stationed at Huai-yin (Ch’ing-chiang), Kiangsu, a city on the Grand Canal and in the heart of territories controlled by the New Fourth Army headed by Ch’en I.
The Executive Headquarters were dissolved in early 1947 following the renewal of the civil war, with the Communist representatives evacuated to Communist-held areas in the northwest. Han apparently took up duties as a political officer; this is inferred from the fact that he was assigned the post of deputy political commissar of the Woo-sung-Shanghai Garrison Headquarters (Woosung being a port city just north of Shanghai) following the Communist occupation of Shanghai in the spring of 1949. He held this post until early 1951 when he was given another assignment.
In May 1951 China and Pakistan agreed to the establishment of diplomatic relations, and at the same time Han was named as the first ambassador. He arrived in Pakistan in early September 1951 and presented his credentials on September 10. At the time Chinese news releases referred to him by his military rank of general. He remained in Pakistan for four and a half years, a relatively long assignment for a Chinese Communist ambassador. The relative paucity of news about Han during his tenure in Karachi derives, in part, from the rather cool relations between the two countries during this period. Broadly speaking, Peking policy was generally “pro-Indian” in the early and mid-1950’s and thus by definition somewhat hostile to Pakistan, at that time a close ally of the United States and, for part of Han’s stay in Pakistan, a member of the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO). Therefore, most of Han’s publicized appearances, for example, receptions marking the anniversary of the PRC, tended to be formalistic. Perhaps his busiest period occurred in late January 1956 when he was involved in the various activities arranged for Sung Ch’ing-ling (Mme. Sun Yat-sen), then in Pakistan on a goodwill visit.
In February 1956 Han was transferred to Sweden as ambassador, replacing Keng Piao. In fact, the two men simply exchanged jobs, with Keng being assigned to Pakistan. Sino-Swedish relations were not particularly active, and thus Han was seldom mentioned in the Chinese press except in relation to such ceremonial duties as parties marking Peking’s National Day. He did, however, sign a trade agreement on November 8, 1957, the first government-to-government agreement negotiated between the two nations. Despite the relative inactivity of Sino-Swedish relations, a diplomat familiar with Han’s work in Sweden has claimed that he was rather well regarded by the Swedes.
On December 20, 1958, Han was replaced in Sweden by Tung Yueh-ch’ien and on the same day appointed an assistant minister of Foreign Affairs. By mid-1959 he assumed (and may still hold) the concurrent post of head of the ministry’s Staff Office, an office concerned mainly with the administrative tasks peculiar to any large governmental agency. Since his assumption of high office in the ministry, Han appears to be chiefly concerned with the non-Communist nations, presumably a result of his lengthy stay abroad in two non-Communist nations. This observation is drawn from the fact that the great majority of his public appearances in Peking are concerned with visits to China by persons from non-Communist countries. However, a notable exception to this pattern of activity occurred in May-June 1960 when Han accompanied Premier Chou En-lai and Foreign Minister Ch’en I to Mongolia. During this visit, an important treaty of friendship and mutual assistance was signed, in addition to a large (200-million ruble) long-term loan by China to Mongolia.
Han’s thirteen years in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were rewarded in April 1964 when he was promoted from assistant to vice-minister. In March-April 1965 he accompanied Foreign Minister Ch’en 1 as the senior member of a small delegation that visited Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Nepal. Ch’en signed agreements relating to the Sino-Afghan boundary, as well as to cooperation in cultural, economic, and technical fields. A Sino-Pakistani boundary protocol and a cultural cooperation agreement were signed in Pakistan, while a press communiqué issued in Nepal revealed that there had been discussions there relating to political and economic matters of mutual interest.
Nothing is known of Han’s personal life aside from the fact that he is married to Wang Chen who is otherwise unknown.
