New US Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns took office on March 28. Based on his schedule from the past month or so, it appears that breaking the US and China from their deadlock will not be easy.
When the US-China trade dispute started in March 2018, then-US ambassador to China Terry Branstad’s personal friendship with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) was not enough to improve the situation. He left office in October 2020.
Then, for the first time in more than 40 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the countries, the role was left vacant for more than 18 months until US President Joe Biden nominated Burns, a career diplomat.
Burns’ nomination was approved by the US Senate in December last year, but his inauguration was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even before he arrived in Beijing, he proposed an “authorized exit” of US diplomats to Washington for the sake of disease prevention, triggering a diplomatic storm. Burns’ proposal was interpreted as an indirect boycott against the Beijing Winter Olympics, and was perceived as a slap in the face of the Chinese authorities. His term began with a rough start.
In the past decade or so, most of the US ambassadors to China were political heavyweights with great influence, such as Chinese-American Gary Locke, who is also a former US secretary of commerce and governor of Washington State.
Branstad had served as governor of the major agricultural state of Iowa for 16 years. He received Xi in the state as early as 1985, when the latter — who was then the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) secretary of Hebei Province’s Zhengding County — led a Chinese delegation to visit the US for the first time.
After Branstad’s 2016 nomination, then-Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Lu Kang (陸慷) called him “an old friend of the Chinese people.”
Originally, then-US president Donald Trump’s nomination was seen as a gesture of goodwill, but the two nations still ended up in discord.
Washington’s appointment of a career diplomat as the US ambassador to China might not be a coincidence given the current structural contradictions between the countries.
Despite cold interactions with Chinese officials, Burns has been active in Beijing’s diplomatic circles. In the past month or so, he has met with ambassadors or representatives of Australia, Canada, the EU, India, Japan, New Zealand and Singapore, all of which are key US allies of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue or Five Eyes alliance, while faithfully implementing the Biden administration’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
Burns was in charge of Russian affairs when serving on the White House’s National Security Council 30 years ago, and among his tasks as ambassador is to support Ukraine.
After taking office, he met with the Polish ambassador, and received the Nordic and Baltic ambassadorial group led by the Swedish ambassador. He was photographed with Ukraine’s temporary acting representative in front of the US embassy with the Ukrainian flag. He does this while trying to keep up with Washington’s pace in Beijing.
Some Chinese online ridicule Burns for neglecting his duties, questioning whether the ambassador left his heart overseas while living in China, and whether he has come to Beijing to socialize with foreign representatives of other countries.
In terms of a diplomat’s primary and secondary duties, there might not be a clear and consistent definition. Still, how is Burns going to handle relationships with Chinese officials and society? His moves in the past few months have given some clues.
Chen Yung-chang is a company manager.
Translated by Eddy Chang
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