Joshua Young is to be the new head of the US Department of State’s China office, the department confirmed yesterday, after a Nikkei Asia report on Friday last week.
Young is set to lead the department’s Office of China Coordination, also known as “China House,” as well as serve as deputy assistant secretary for China and Taiwan, Nikkei Asia said, citing an unnamed official.
The office would remain in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, although Young’s move to the role “elevates” its focus on China, an official told Nikkei Asia.
Photo from the US Department of State Web site
It would make him responsible for coordinating China policy across the department and expediting orders from the White House, it added.
His elevation also reportedly lessens the burden on current office head Kevin Kim, whose responsibilities include guiding department policy for Taiwan, China, Japan, South Korea and Mongolia on an acting basis, as well as Southeast Asia, Oceania and the Pacific Islands, it said.
Young is the fourth person to serve in the role and he has the support of the department leadership, it added.
Young in January was appointed US deputy assistant secretary for international security policy, prior to which he was an executive director at the Project 2049 Institute, a Washington think tank, and an adviser at the US Department of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs.
At the defense department, Young worked under former US assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific affairs Randy Schriver, who told Nikkei Asia that in his time there, Young sought to chart a “more optimized trade and economic approach to China for the purposes of competing effectively.”
Young is “well-versed” in how to navigate interagency cooperation, Schriver was cited as saying.
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