Biden Taps Burns and Emanuel as Ambassadors to China and Japan
WASHINGTON — President Biden on Friday nominated R. Nicholas Burns, a veteran Foreign Service officer and a former ambassador to NATO, as ambassador to China and Rahm Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago and former President Barack Obama’s first chief of staff, as ambassador to Japan.
Mr. Biden settled on both nominees months ago, people involved in the process said. But the official announcement was delayed in part because the United States needs the host countries to sign off on such selections before proceeding.
The nominations were announced on Friday afternoon, hours after Mr. Biden delivered remarks on the chaos in Afghanistan, the biggest foreign policy crisis of his presidency to date.
Mr. Burns is poised to fill a diplomatic vacuum as an increasingly ideological conflict between China and the United States has led to worsening relations. In March, an extraordinarily tense meeting in Anchorage between top Chinese and American diplomats devolved into public renunciations.
Around that time, Mr. Biden had been deciding between Mr. Emanuel and Mr. Burns to be his ambassador to China, one of the most important embassy postings. He told people he was interested in choosing a “principal” who would send a different sort of message than a career diplomat would, people involved in the process said.
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The diplomatic world, however, was pushing for Mr. Burns, a career Foreign Service official who has served in both Republican and Democratic administrations, over someone whose background was steeped in domestic politics.
“I welcome this opportunity to work on behalf of the president and the American people on the strategic competition between the U.S. and the P.R.C., as well as other difficult and complex challenges we face at this critical juncture in our relationship,” Mr. Burns said in a statement, referring to the People’s Republic of China.
Mr. Emanuel, who developed a close relationship with Mr. Biden when he was…
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