Jean Ping

Jean Ping (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ piŋ]; born 24 November 1942) is a Gabonese diplomat and politician who served as Chair of the African Union Commission from 2008 to 2012. Born to a Chinese father and Gabonese mother, he is the first individual of Chinese descent to lead the executive branch of the African Union.

He served as the Minister of State and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and Francophonie of the Gabonese Republic from 1999 to 2008, and was President of the United Nations General Assembly from 2004 to 2005. He stood for the 2016 Gabonese presidential election against president Ali Bongo.

Biography

Personal life

Ping was born in Omboué, a small town on the Fernan Vaz Lagoon, south of Port-Gentil. His father, Cheng Zhiping, called Wang Ping by the Gabonese, was a Chinese man from Wenzhou, Zhejiang, who was recruited as a labourer in the 1920s and became a timber harvester. Cheng, who married Germaine Anina, a Gabonese daughter of a tribal chief that was born in Zaire, encouraged his son to study in France with a scholarship from the Gabonese government.

Ping has a doctorate in economic science from the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, which he obtained under René Passet in 1975.

Previously in a relationship with Pascaline Bongo, daughter of president Omar Bongo, with whom he has two children, Ping also has children with Marie-Madeleine Liane. However, he has always remained married to Jeanne-Thérèse, who is of Italo-Ivorian origin. He is the father of eight children.