He Yafei was born in 1955. He holds a postgraduate degree from Beijing Foreign Studies University and studied at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. He has served as Counselor of the Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Arms Control of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), Minister-Counselor and Minister of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China in the United States of America, Director-General of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs of the MFA, Assistant Minister of Foreign Affairs, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland, and Deputy Director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council.