Twenty-nine years ago today, on December 13, 1996 (November 3, 1996 in the lunar calendar), Kofi Annan was elected Secretary-General of the United Nations. This month's Security Council President Fulci announced the election of Annan to journalists waiting in the corridor of the Security Council. On the evening of December 13, 1996, the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution by acclamation, formally recommending Kofi Annan, a Ghanaian native of Africa, as the new UN Secretary-General, whose term will expire on December 31, 2001. The appointment will be approved by the plenary meeting of the UN General Assembly on December 17. At this point, the half-year-old issue of selecting the Secretary-General of the United Nations has finally reached a conclusion. The United Nations Charter stipulates that the Secretary-General is recommended by the Security Council and appointed by the United Nations General Assembly. In addition, there are no more detailed regulations on the terms of office of the Secretary-General. However, due to the tacit understanding of various countries, several consensuses were reached: that is, the Secretary-General must not come from a permanent member; he can speak both English and French; he can come from various regions in turn; Each Secretary-General has the opportunity to be re-elected once. Historically, except for Rey, the first Secretary-General, who failed to complete his second term due to opposition from the Soviet Union, and Hammarskjöld, the second Secretary-General, who was killed in an air crash while going to Congo (present-day Zaire) to mediate in the conflict, the other three Secretary-General from Europe, Asia and South America have all served two terms. Therefore, in accordance with established practice, Secretary-General Ghali, who is from Africa, should also enjoy this right. However, due to conflicts between the United States and Ghali in handling the issues of Somalia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Ghali made blunt criticism of the United States 'arrears in its membership dues to the United Nations, the Republican Party of the United States took the opportunity to use the issue of whether the United Nations Secretary-General would be re-elected as a political bargaining chip in the U.S. election, forcing the Clinton administration to push Ghali to the altar of American politics. In early June, the United States took the lead in expressing through the press that it would not support Ghali's re-election as the next Secretary-General without consulting with the other four permanent members. However, Gali announced in Germany on June 19 that he would officially run for re-election. From then on, Ghali's conflict with the United States became public. In order to prevent Ghali from being re-elected, the United States has launched a series of polarization and disintegration efforts in Africa. The Clinton administration sent assistant secretaries of state and secretaries of state to Africa to lobby, but with little success. On July 9, the Organization of African Unity summit issued a statement supporting Africans to continue to serve as United Nations Secretary-General and recommending Ghali to run for re-election. On November 19, the Security Council formally voted on the draft resolution by Egypt and other countries to nominate Ghali to serve as the next Secretary-General. As a result, the United States exercised its veto power. However, the Security Council also decided that the African Group would continue to propose an African candidate. Chairman of the Organization of African Unity and President of Cameroon Biya also wrote to African countries requesting that new candidates be proposed as soon as possible. In order to break the deadlock, Ghali announced a temporary suspension of candidacy so that African countries could propose more candidates. Since then, African countries have nominated Kofi Annan, the current United Nations Deputy Secretary-General from Ghana, Essy, President of the 49th UN General Assembly and Foreign Minister of Cote d'Ivoire, Hamid Gabid, Secretary-General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, and Abdullah, former Foreign Minister of Mauritania, as new candidates. The Council held multiple rounds of voting on four candidates. Although Annan's support rating has always led, there were at least two votes against it, including a veto vote by one permanent member, while the other three candidates were vetoed by at least two permanent members, causing another deadlock in the selection of the new secretary-general. Since African countries insist that the next Secretary-General must come from Africa, if the deadlock continues, it will not be conducive to achieving this goal. In this case, three Security Council members from Africa-Egypt, Botswana and Guinea-Bissau-all supported Annan as a formal candidate. In the seventh round of secret voting at noon on the 12th, Annan's support votes rose to 14, with only one permanent member voting a veto. The Security Council continued to meet at noon on the 13th. After the other three candidates announced that they would abandon the election, the 15 member states successfully reached an agreement without voting again. In this election, Africa was finally able to reach consensus, unite and cooperate, which played a key role in the election results. China plays a unique balancing role in this. Since China has always insisted that the next Secretary-General must come from Africa, this position has had a direct impact on other members of the Security Council. Although some countries have threatened that if African countries fail to propose a replacement for Ghali, they will destroy Africans 'chances of re-election. But in formal consultations in the Security Council, no country proposed a candidate from outside Africa. Annan was born in Kumasi City, Ghana on April 8, 1938. He studied at Kumasi University of Technology in Ghana in his early years. He studied in the United States and Switzerland. He successively received a bachelor's degree in economics from McAlester College, Minnesota, USA and a master's degree in management from MIT. Since the 1960s, he has worked in the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, United Nations Headquarters, the United Nations Office at Geneva, UNHCR and the World Health Organization. After the October War in the Middle East in 1974, he served as the civilian chief of the United Nations Emergency Force in Cairo. In the 1980s, Annan was transferred back to the United Nations Headquarters in New York, where he successively served as the leadership of the personnel and finance departments. In 1986, he became Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations. In March 1993, he served as the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Affairs, in charge of peacekeeping operations around the world. He served as the Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for the former Yugoslavia and the Special Envoy to NATO, coordinating relations between relevant countries. Annan is an experienced diplomat who understands English, French and several African languages. Former Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali (right) shook hands with Annan and congratulated him on his election. Behind them is UN General Assembly President Razali. Annan speaks at a White House press conference. On December 17, his first day in office, Annan delivered his first speech to the United Nations General Assembly. In the offices at United Nations Headquarters