Long-time diplomat Nicholas Burns to be nominated as US ambassador to China
- Rahm Emanuel, a former Chicago mayor and White House chief of staff under president Barack Obama, is the choice to be ambassador to Tokyo
- Burns is called ‘an outstanding choice who will be warmly received by everyone’
The selection of Burns, who served in the US State Department for more than three decades in high-level positions in Republican and Democrat administrations, was widely expected, and it sends an important message to China and US allies, analysts said.
“This is the most predictable development in an unpredictable relationship,” said Jeffrey Moon, head of China Moon Strategies and former consul general in Chengdu. “He’s a diplomat’s diplomat, an outstanding choice who will be warmly received by everyone, by Congress; professional diplomats will be encouraged.
Among past posts on Burns’s long résumé include US ambassador to Nato from 2001 to 2005 under president George W Bush and tenure as a member of then-secretary of state John Kerry’s foreign policy advisory board from 2014 to 2017 during president Barack Obama’s administration.
