潘基文 (Pānjīwén): Ban Ki-moon (b. 1944), South Korean diplomat, 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations 2007–2016

The Chinese name 潘基文 is the Mandarin reading of the Korean hanja 潘基文 (Ban Gi-mun) — not a transliteration. Koreans with Chinese-character names keep the same written form in Chinese, which is why his name looks 'Chinese' compared to other foreign UN chiefs like 安南 (Kofi Annan).

history

As UN Secretary-General, Ban oversaw the adoption of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, the two signature multilateral pacts of his term.