Joe Biden appoints Nicholas Burns as ambassador to China
A career diplomat, Nicholas Burns was chosen Friday by Joe Biden to occupy the sensitive post of US ambassador to China.
Nicholas Burns, January 21, 2007, in Israel.
AFP
US President Joe Biden has appointed Nicholas Burns, a career diplomat, as US ambassador to China, a major rival power with whom relations have been rocky for several years, the White House announced on Friday.
Nicholas Burns, 65, was US representative to NATO (2001-2005), ambassador to Greece (1997-2001), spokesperson for the State Department (1995-1997) and specialist on the USSR then of Russia in the White House National Security Council under George WH Bush and Bill Clinton (1990-1995).
He was also Assistant Secretary of State for Political Affairs between 2005 and 2008, then working “with the Chinese government on issues as diverse as Afghanistan, UN sanctions against Iran, North Korea. and US policy in the Indo-Pacific region, ”according to a White House statement. Between 2014 and 2017, he also advised Secretary of State John Kerry, according to his biography published by Harvard University, where he currently teaches diplomacy.
Confrontation policy
His appointment comes as the United States is organizing, after the return to power of the Taliban, a massive operation to evacuate civilians from Afghanistan, whose border China shares 76 km.
Beijing considers the instability in its neighbor as a threat to the security of its border region of Xinjiang (northwest). This territory has long been struck by attacks attributed to separatists or Islamists of the Uyghur Muslim ethnicity and the Chinese authorities have imposed draconian police surveillance there for a few years.
The two superpowers are also at daggers drawn on the situation in Hong Kong, Taiwan, on human rights, trade, technology or the origin of the coronavirus pandemic. President Joe Biden has so far hardly deviated from the confrontational policy chosen by his predecessor Donald Trump.
In July, China appointed Qin Gang, an ambassador known for his aggressive postures towards Western countries, to Washington. The US president has also appointed Rahm Emanuel, former chief of staff to President Barack Obama (2009-2010) as ambassador to Japan, Washington’s main regional ally.
At 61, Rahm Emanuel was mayor of Chicago, the third largest city in the United States, between 2011 and 2019. But he had seen his popularity drop as shootings increased in the megalopolis in the north of the country, before giving up to a third term in 2018. These two appointments must be validated by the Senate, where the Democrats, who have only a slim majority, face the obstruction of the Republicans on the votes of the appointed ambassadors.
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