Beijing, March 20 India's newly appointed Ambassador to China, Vikram Doraiswami, has a Chinese name: Wei Jiameng, which signifies a fortunate or commendable ally.
Doraiswami, a 1992-batch officer of the Indian Foreign Service (IFS), was appointed as India's new envoy to China on Thursday.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian told a media briefing on Friday that he had noticed that the Indian envoy had chosen a Chinese name for himself: Wei Jiameng.
"China welcomes India's new ambassador to China, Wei Jiameng, and is ready to provide him with all the necessary support to carry out his duties in China," he said.
According to Chinese scholars, the loose translation of the name in Mandarin is Wei, a common Chinese surname that phonetically matches "Vi" in Vikram. Long ago, Wei was a powerful state during the Warring States period in Chinese history.
"Jia" means "auspicious or commendable", and "Meng" means "alliance". Broadly, it signifies a fortunate/commendable ally, the scholars told
