Chen Lanbin (; 1816–1895), courtesy name Li Qiu (), was a Chinese politician and diplomat who was the first Chinese Ambassador to the United States during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

. Born in Wuchuan City,

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

, he passed the Chinese

imperial examination The imperial examination was a civil service examination system in History of China#Imperial China, Imperial China administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the Civil service#China, state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureau ...

in 1853 at the age of 24, and entered the Hanlin Academy. He soon became the head of two departments of the Qing government in succession, and in 1872 he was sent to the United States and named commissioner of the Chinese Educational Commission in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The city, located in Hartford County, Connecticut, Hartford County, had a population of 121,054 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 ce ...

, despite not knowing English. He occupied numerous other positions until 1875, when he began acting as the government's representative in the United States. He was formally named the Chinese Ambassador to the United States, Spain, and

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

in 1878, a position that he held until 1881. A conservative, Chen was often at odds with the progressive oriented

Yung Wing Yung Wing (; November 17, 1828April 21, 1912) was a Chinese-American diplomat and businessman. In 1854, he became the first Chinese student to graduate from an American university, Yale College. He was involved in business transactions between C ...

, the first Chinese student to graduate from an American university, and a colleague of his. In 2015, Chen was featured in an article by ''

China Daily ''China Daily'' ( zh, s=中国日报, p=Zhōngguó Rìbào) is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Overview ''China Daily'' has the widest print circulation of any ...

'', which remembered his efforts in promoting

China–United States relations The relationship between the China, People's Republic of China (PRC) and the United States (US) is one of the most important foreign relations in the world. It has been complex and at times tense since the Proclamation of the People's Republi ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Lanbin 1816 births 1895 deaths 19th-century Chinese diplomats Ambassadors of China to the United States Politicians from Zhanjiang Ministers of Zongli Yamen