‘China’s Most Beautiful Interpreter’ becomes an internet hit

The popularity of a Chinese interpreter has soared because of her cool handling of State Councillor Yang Jiechi’s 15-minute opening remarks at the start of talks between senior US and Chinese officials in Alaska on Thursday. Zhang Jing stole the show for her part in the first face-to-face talks between high-level officials from the two countries US President Joe Biden took office in January. The two-day meeting in Anchorage concluded on Friday.

Chinese media reports referred to her as “China’s Principle Interpreter” and “China’s Most Beautiful Interpreter”. Her name has become one of the top searches on social media platform Weibo. Videos featuring photographs of her also scored tens of millions of views online.A native of Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, Zhang graduated from Hangzhou Foreign Languages School in 2003 and then from the China Foreign Affairs University, where she majored in English. She was recruited by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2007.

China Women News posted on its social media account that Zhang was a model of “China’s image” and was “a representation of MFA’s most competent and professional translators delivering China’s voice to the world”.

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