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China has a brand new ambassador to the USA: Xie Feng, beforehand the vice international minister. Xie arrived in Washington on Could 23, formally changing Qin Gang, who left the put up in December 2022 to develop into international minister.
Xie has deep expertise engaged on the China-U.S. relationship. That marks a notable distinction with Qin, who had just about no expertise in the USA earlier than he arrived as China’s ambassador in August 2021. As an alternative, Qin was promoted extra for his closeness to Xi Jinping.
On the time of Qin’s appointment, there was some hypothesis that Beijing was downgrading the significance of diplomatic expertise – and the relationship-building that comes with it – in favor of political pedigree. The Chinese language ambassador to the U.S. earlier than Qin, Cui Tiankai, had a deep pedigree of labor on the China-U.S. relationship earlier than taking over his put up in Washington. Xie’s appointment, nonetheless, means that Qin’s appointment was an aberration, quite than a brand new pattern.
Actually, Qin’s stint because the Chinese language ambassador could have all the time been envisioned as a short-term stepping stone to his present put up as international minister. As Chihwei Yu and Ok. Tristan Tang famous in a November 2022 article for The Diplomat, if it weren’t for Qin’s appointment as U.S. ambassador, he wouldn’t have served overseas since 2011. Such expertise is usually thought-about a prerequisite for taking over the international minister put up – as is a few expertise in dealing with U.S. relations, which Qin additionally lacked. On condition that, it appears possible that Qin’s elevation to U.S. ambassador was as a lot about padding his resume in preparation for the long run promotion as serving China-U.S. relations.
Not like Qin, Xie has deep experience on the USA. From 1993-2014 he bounced forwards and backwards between stints on the Chinese language Embassy in the USA (serving first as counselor and spokesperson, then as a minister) and postings within the Chinese language International Ministry’s Division of North American and Oceanian Affairs, together with as that division’s director-general from 2010 to 2014.
Xie then served as ambassador to Indonesia (2014-2017), and the International Ministry’s commissioner to Hong Kong (2017-2021, that means he was in Hong Kong by way of the 2019 protests and subsequent enactment of the Nationwide Safety Legislation) earlier than returning to take up the put up of vice international minister in 2021. There, in response to the South China Morning Publish, he was particularly tasked with dealing with China-U.S. relations
Xie made a splash in his new put up as vice international minister at a gathering with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman in Tianjin in August 2021. As Shi Jiangtao and Catherine Wong put it of their write up for SCMP, “In an unusually blunt message directed on the second-ranking American diplomat, he [Xie] denounced the administration of President Joe Biden for singling Beijing out as an ‘imaginary enemy’, and demanded that China be handled as an equal.”
The interplay, they famous, belied Xie’s general popularity as “rational, media-savvy, and meticulous.” However, as I’ve argued earlier than, in the long run the person proclivities of Chinese language officers, together with diplomats, matter far lower than the alerts they’re receiving from up high. And Xie proved adept at following Xi’s lead.
Because the fireworks of that early assembly, Xie has taken a decrease profile, whereas holding frequent interactions with Individuals. U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns famous on Twitter that he had held 23 meetings with Xie in 14 months. (He selected to not level out that a type of interactions was an notorious dressing down after the USA downed an alleged surveillance balloon from China in February 2023.)
Along with frequent conferences with Burns, Xie has met with visiting U.S. enterprise leaders on no less than 4 events, along with conferences with the president of the Nationwide Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the honorary president of the Julliard Faculty. In different phrases, as China reopened to common international journey in early 2023, Xie has largely been the official face welcoming high-profile U.S. friends.
His messages at these conferences had been constant: echoing the official coverage line that China stays dedicated to “opening up” and can “firmly pursue a path of peaceable improvement.”
In remarks to reporters upon arriving in the USA, Xie famous two priorities, in descending order: “As a consultant of the Chinese language folks, I’ve come right here to safeguard the pursuits of China, and I take this as my sacred accountability. As an envoy of the Chinese language folks, I’ve come right here to boost China-U.S. exchanges and cooperation, and I take this as my vital mission.”
In different phrases, we are able to anticipate extra “wolf warrior diplomacy” each time Beijing sees its core pursuits at stake (which is more likely to occur incessantly, if the latest previous is any information). However Xie selected to focus extra on the second precedence, enhancing exchanges and cooperation, and thus largely struck a hopeful tone in his remarks.
“Clearly there are profound variations between the 2 nations, and the connection is confronted with critical difficulties and challenges,” he stated. However he additionally famous the historic context that “this relationship has gone by way of many twists and turns prior to now half century, but it has all the time been in a position to transfer forward.”
Saying that the “China-U.S. relationship has as soon as once more come to a historic crossroads,” Xie stated each nations “ought to take concrete actions to ship on the frequent understandings between President Xi Jinping and President Joe Biden, and discover the suitable method to get together with one another within the new period.”
There’s a window of alternative open, with latest talks between U.S. Nationwide Safety Advisor Jake Sullivan and China’s high diplomat Wang Yi putting essentially the most hopeful be aware in years. Whereas nobody expects China and the USA to develop into shut buddies, they’ll take steps to handle the plain tensions between them by constructing belief and confidence. Xie’s appointment, given his 30 years of expertise on China-U.S. relations, is a powerful sign that Beijing is open to really doing that work.
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