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Reuters

Bloomberg

The new US ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns, has arrived in the country and will be in quarantine for three weeks, the US embassy said in a tweet on Saturday.
The United States has been without an ambassador in Beijing since Terry Branstad stepped down in October 2020.
Burns, a veteran diplomat and former US ambassador to Nato arrives at a time when relations between the world’s two biggest economies are at their worst in decades.
Recent points of friction include the US-led diplomatic boycott of last month’s Beijing Winter Olympics, and China’s diplomatic backing of Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
Beijing will pay if it helps Russia evade sanctions, US official warns
President Joe Biden’s nomination of Burns for the post was approved by the US Senate on December 16.
The embassy tweet said Burns’ travel plans had been delayed due to the pandemic and that a group of US mission personnel and their families travelled with him.
The US did not send new diplomats to its China missions last year amid strict Chinese Covid-19 controls, although it never announced a policy to that effect. State Department spokesman Ned Price said at the time that the US had concerns about China’s “quarantine and testing policies that run counter to diplomatic privileges.”
Burns, who has served under Democratic and Republican presidents, is viewed as a calm, savvy professional in Washington’s partisan politics. Apart from Nato, he previously also served as US ambassador to Greece.
Burns has described China as being the aggressor in its relationship with Taiwan, Vietnam, Japan and the Philippines.


In a nomination hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in October, Burns said China had weaknesses that the United States could use to its advantage, including demographics and the growing global pushback over its behaviour.
“China is not an Olympian power … They have enormous strengths. They have very few friends. They have no real allies,” he said.
“We’re a strong country. We should be confident, for our values and our interests, and we can stand up to the Chinese. But our allies and partners can help to do that so that there’s real weight and leverage.”
The US could not trust Beijing given how it had reneged on the “one nation, two systems” framework for Hong Kong, he said, adding that Washington had “enormous latitude” to deepen its security assistance to Taiwan.
But he hoped the two powers could find common ground on climate change, global health and nuclear non-proliferation.


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US-China relations

China’s new US ambassador arrives to fill post left vacant since October 2020

Nicholas Burns was confirmed as ambassador to China by the US  Senate in December 2021. Photo: AFP 

Ukraine attack: freeze on Russia loans reveals fine balancing act from China

The Beijing headquarters of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, which has halted activities with Russia and Belarus. Photo: Reuters

China-US tension: ambassador Terry Branstad to step down but America offers no news on a replacement

President Xi Jinping and Terry Branstad (right) in 2017. Branstad’s term as US ambassador to China will end in October. Photo: AP

FILE - In this June 28, 2017, file photo, U.S. Ambassador to China Terry Branstad makes comments about pro-democracy activist and Nobel Laureate Liu Xiaobo during a photocall and remarks to journalists at the Ambassador's residence in Beijing. Branstad appears to be leaving his post, based on tweets by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Pompeo thanked Branstad for more than three years of service on Twitter on Monday, Sept. 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

News

China

Diplomacy


Nicholas Burns, who has talked tough on China, arrives at a time of tense bilateral relations
Burns has described Beijing as the aggressor in its ties with Taiwan, and said its stance on Hong Kong showed it cannot be trusted



Nicholas Burns, who has talked tough on China, arrives at a time of tense bilateral relations.
