Ho Ying

Background

He was born about 1910 on Hainan Island.

Education

His career before 1949 is undocumented aside from the fact that he once lived in Malaya.

Career

By 1949 he was back in China serving as a division deputy political commissar with the Red Army, to have risen to this level Ho must have returned to China by at least the Sino-Japanese War period. By 1951 he was assigned to China’s fledgling diplomatic corps, presumably because of his past experience abroad. His first assignment was a consul general (with the rank of minister) in Jakarta, a post he received in February 1951. In August 1951 he was given the concurrent position as minister-counselor of the PRC embassy in Indo¬nesia. He returned to Peking late in 1951 but was not officially removed from his posts in Indonesia until August 1952.

It was also in August 1952 that Ho was made one of the deputy directors of the Asian Affairs Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), a post that placed him under Department Director Ch’en Chia-k’ang, a long-time colleague of Chou En-lai. Perhaps his most notable assignment while holding this position was as one of the negotiators of the Sino-lndian treaty regarding the status of Tibet (see under Chang Han-fu). The negotiations, led by Vice-foreign Minister Chang Han-fu, lasted from the end of December 1953 until the treaty was signed in Peking by Chang on April 29, 1954. Not long after, Ho was named as the ambassador to Mongolia where he succeeded Chi Ya-t’ai. He was appointed in September 1954 and presented his credentials in Ulan Bator later that month.

In August 1958 on the eve of his departure from Mongolia, Ho received the highest order bestowed by the Mongolian Government and early the next month was removed from his post. By early 1959 he was again working in a department within the MFA. Not long after his return from abroad, the Asian Affairs Department was divided into the First and Second Asian Affairs Departments. Ho was assigned as a deputy director of the First Department, the one devoted to the affairs of the non-Communist nations of Asia. He held this post for just one year, then in early 1960 was assigned to head the West Asian and African Affairs Department. Prior to this time, this department had been one of the least active sections of the MFA, However, with the emergence in 1960 of many newly independent African countries, it rapidly emerged as one of the most important. Closely coinciding with Ho’s ap-pointment to this department, the China-Africa People’s Friendship Association (April 1960) was created by the Chinese, with Ho being named to the Standing Committee. During the two years that he headed the West Asian and African Affairs Department, he frequently took part in negotiations with visitors from Africa. For example, he participated in talks with the Algerian president in October 1960 and with a visiting Nigerian economic delegation in June 1961.

In addition to his visits to Uganda and Kenya in early 1964, Ho visited Nyasaland in March 1964, apparently attempting to lay the groundwork for recognition of the PRC after independence. Ho’s mission to Nyasaland, however, was less than successful, when the new nation became independent in July 1964 (after which it was known as Malawi), the independence ceremonies were attended by a vice-minister of Foreign Affairs from Nationalist China, a fact vigorously denounced by the Chinese Communist press. Moreover, in September 1964, Malawi Premier Hastings Banda delivered a blistering attack on the Chinese Communists’ interference in Malawian affairs in a speech before the Mala-wian parliament. He specifically accused Ho, then in neighboring Tanzania, of having tried to bribe members of the Malawi Government into forcing Banda to recognize the PRC.

During his stay in Dar es Salaam, Ho has served as host for a large number of Chinese delegations that have visited East Africa. He has also negotiated agreements with his host country, one of the most notable, a protocol dealing with economic and technical cooperation, was signed in January 1965; at the same time he exchanged letters on the dispatch of Chinese experts and technicians to Tanzania. Ho has been called home on at least two occasions; the more important of these took place in February 1965 when he was in China to serve as one of the hosts for Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere, then on a state visit to the PRC.

Ho, who is accompanied by his wife and a teenage daughter in Tanzania, is known to have a fair understanding of English. Unlike many Chinese ambassadors elsewhere, he circulates rather freely in the Tanzanian capital and has numerous contacts, not only with Tanzanian officials, but also with the numerous African revolutionary exiles in Dar es Salaam. He has achieved a degree of notoriety for driving the “largest and flashiest car anywhere in East Africa,” and Ho and his staff have also gained a reputation in the international press for “living it up,” a reference to the large and expensive facilities in which the Chinese diplomatic community lives and works.

Politics

Prior to Ho’s tour in Mongolia, Sino-Mongolian relations had been relatively inactive. However, during his four-year stay in Ulan Bator, relations between Peking and Ulan Bator grew much closer. This was illustrated in several ways. For example, it was while Ho was in Mongolia that the first direct rail link between Peking and Ulan Bator was opened. This was known as the Tsining (Chi-ning)-Ulan Bator Railway, and when the rather elaborate ceremonies were held to celebrate the inauguration of the line in the closing days of 1955 and early January 1956, Ho was among those taking part. He was also an official member of the Chinese delegations to both the 12th and 13th Congresses of the Mongolian Party (November 1954 and March 1958), in each case under the leadership of Ulanfu, Peking’s senior Mongol leader. Trade also increased sharply during Ho’s time in Mongolia. For example, under the terms of a trade protocol that he signed in the Mongolian capital in February 1956, it was provided that Sino-Mongol trade in 1956 would be double that of 1955. A further indication of this trend was reported in the JMJP of October 4, 1957, which claimed that trade had risen nearly 40 times in 1956 when compared with 1952. But perhaps the most impressive indication of closer Sino-Mongol ties occurred under the terms of agreements negotiated in 1955 and 1956-large-scale Chinese aid to Mongolia was inaugurated, including the dispatch by China to Mongolia of an estimated 10,000 laborers to assist in a wide variety of construction projects.

In February 1962 Ho was named as Peking’s first ambassador to Tanganyika, a nation with which China had established diplomatic relations in late 1961. He presented his credentials in Dar es Salaam in April 1962, and since that date has probably been the most important Chinese diplomat in East Africa. Following his arrival he negotiated the establishment of formal diplomatic relations with four other East African nations, the details of which require some elaboration. His first formal contact outside Tanganyika occurred in September 1962 when he was the official PRC representative to independence ceremonies in Burundi. However, because a Chinese Nationalist mission was also in Burundi, Ho departed but not before issuing a press statement denouncing a United States’ “two-Chinas” plot, while at the same time affirming Sino-Burundian friendship. However, 15 months later (December 1963), Ho was again in Burundi. On this occasion he successfully negotiated the establishment of formal diplomatic ties between the two nations. In the interim, he had succeeded in establishing diplomatic relations with three other nations, Uganda, Zanzibar, and Zambia. He performed this task vis-à-vis Uganda when he visited that country in October 1962, he subsequently became the first Chinese ambassador to Uganda (holding concurrently his post in Tanganyika), a position he held from April 1963 to April 1964. His task in Zanzibar was accomplished in December 1963 when he attended the independence ceremonies of that small island country. Not long after (April 1964), Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged to form Tanzania. After a short delay, Peking formally appointed Ho (July 1964) to head the Peking mission in this newly amalgamated nation, a position he continues to hold in 1965. In October 1964. Ho arrived in Lusaka, Northern Rhodesia, for independence ceremonies (after which this country became known as Zambia). Once again Ho succeeded in establishing diplomatic relations with this newly independent nation. In January 1964 Ho made quick visits to both Uganda and Kenya, apparently to prepare the way for Premier Chou En-lai, who was making an extensive tour of Africa. However, the extremely unsettled political situation in East Africa (especially in Tanganyika where an abortive coup took place) forced Chou to his visits to Uganda, Kenya and Tanganyika. But about a year later, Ho did participate in talks held in Dar es Salaam between Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere and Chou during the latter’s visit in June 1965.

Connections

In private life, Ho has apparently been married at least twice. He was once married to Chung Chien-hua, but while he has been in East Africa his wife has been Wang Hao. Nothing is known about the antecedents of either of these women.

Spouse:

Chung Chien-hu