Ezio Mizzan

Ezio Mizzan (12 January 1905 – 26 March 1969) was an Italian diplomat. After graduating in law in Rome, Mizzan started his career at the Farnesina. He was sent as consul to Rio and Annaba, and acted as a diplomat in the Italian Embassies in Bucharest, Brussels, Berlin and Paris. In the middle of 1946 he was sent to China, where he was initially appointed consul of Hankou. Mizzan lived firsthand the advent of Communism in China, where he remained, as first secretary of the Italian embassy and the de facto leader of diplomatic relations, after the Italian ambassador fled to Italy in 1950.

In 1951, fearing political repercussions for Italy and for the lives of the Italian diplomats in China, who were still stationed in Nanjing, China's former capital and the claimed capital of the Republic of China, he advised Italy to make a firm choice, either formally recognizing China, and thence moving him to Beijing, China's new capital, or breaking all relations and moving all diplomats out. Italy chose to dismantle the embassy and Mizzan left for Hong Kong at the end of 1951. He then became the second Italian Ambassador to Thailand (1959–1965) and the ninth Italian Ambassador to Pakistan (1966–1969).

Biography Ezio Mizzan was born in Trieste, now Italy, at the time under Austro-Hungarian rule, on 12 January 1905, to Giovanni, a pharmacist, and Gilda Rovis,

After graduating from the University of Rome, he pursued his studies abroad, and in 1932 started his career as a diplomat.

In the middle of 1946 he was sent to China, and was appointed consul of Hankou. In China, Mizzan lived firsthand the advent of Communism. He was the "highest Italian functionary in China among those who, among thousands difficulties, resisted and held their place after the outbreak of the war in Korea, albeit without recognition from Beijing." Mizzan found himself in the lead of the diplomatic relations between Italy and China after the Italian ambassador fled to Italy in 1950. Neither the functionaries nor their belongings nor the embassy buildings were given the privileged status normally acknowledged to diplomats. In February 1951 he reported from Nanjing that in the absence of formal Italian recognition of Communist China, his permanence in China's old capital, and the claimed capital of the Republic of China, might create inconveniences of political nature, beside putting his and the other diplomats' lives at risk. In February, Rome prepared a telegram in which Carlo Sforza recognized China, and expressed his willingness to establish diplomatic relations, asking Zhou Enlai to turn to Mizzan as head of diplomatic relations ad interim. he became Ambassador of Italy to Thailand, holding this post until August 1965. Mizzan was received in Karachi by the Pakistani authorities. He held this post until his death, on 26 March 1969.

Mizzan was made a Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic by the Italian State on 2 June 1965.

Marriage and progeny On 6 February 1935 he married Enrica Galluppi di Cirella. The marriage produced offspring. The couple eventually split and his ex-wife later remarried to Bonifacio Marquess of Canossa, Count of Canossa and Lord of Grezzano.