After the establishment of the People's Republic of China, Ji Pengfei worked with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and led diplomatic missions to East Germany before being appointed as China's first ambassador to the GDR in 1953, being the youngest Chinese ambassador at 43. He was recalled to serve as vice-minister of Foreign Affairs in 1955.
In 1999, his son, Ji Shengde, a senior member of the People's Liberation Army intelligence, was arrested and tried for corruption, selling classified information and diverting public funds, and was sentenced to death penalty. The penalty was commuted to 20 years in prison, when he returned stolen money and denounce other abuses.[citation needed]
Ji Pengfei was praised by the Xinhua News Agency as an outstanding communist fighter, and greatly lauded again in 2010 at a ceremony in the Great Hall of the People to celebrate his 100th birth anniversary.