The resignation on Monday of Robert Zoellick, the deputy secretary of state, leaves a void on US President George W. Bush's Asia policy team at a time when the US has made a priority of engaging China on issues ranging from the trade deficit to Iran.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice entrusted Zoellick, 52, with management of the relationship with China, the fastest growing major economy. Such responsibility is unusual for a deputy, who traditionally backs up the secretary rather than designing policy.
"I don't see anybody else in this administration who can step into Zoellick's shoes, because there's no one besides Zoellick in this administration who understands China," said Jeffrey Bader, a former director of Asian affairs for the National Security Council.
Kurt Campbell, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asia, said there "is notable anxiety about his leaving" in Beijing.
Besides his work on China, Zoellick has also led US efforts to stop a wave of killings and destruction in Sudan's Darfur region that has turned as many as 2 million people into refugees. Zoellick hammered out a peace agreement between a warring rebel faction in Darfur and the government in Khartoum, opening the possibility for a UN force to enter the area.
No successor has been named to replace Zoellick, who said he would leave the State Department early next month. He has taken a job as vice chairman of Goldman Sachs Group's international business, where he will advise the firm on global issues and chair its 25-member international advisory group. Zoellick worked at the firm during the Clinton administration.
Among possible successors are Randall Tobias, 64, who was appointed head of the US Agency for International Development in January; Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, the 50-year-old current No. 3 official who has been Rice's point man on negotiations with European nations to curb Iran's nuclear program; and Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt.
Stuart Eizenstat, undersecretary of state for economic affairs in president Bill Clinton's administration, said last month that Zoellick has ``been perhaps the most effective deputy secretary of state in decades, taking on really tough issues.''
Zoellick informed the White House and Rice earlier this year of his plans to leave the government, having served six consecutive years at back-to-back senior positions. He was US trade representative before joining the State Department.
In a speech on China in New York on Sept. 21, Zoellick defined the guiding principle for US policy toward China when he urged the most populous nation to become a "responsible stakeholder" in the international system.
As trade representative, in 2001, Zoellick negotiated the last details of an accord for China to join the WTO.
Asked who would fill his role on managing the China relationship once he departs, Zoellick said: "There are going to be different people."
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