With US-China relations at their worst levels in decades, US President Joe Biden's nomination of a new ambassador to Beijing—after nine months without one—has not exactly been met with cheers from the Chinese side. Nicholas Burns, a career diplomat and a foreign policy advisor to both Democratic and Republican governments with over three decades of experience in various administrations, has upset Beijing with his past remarks.
In October, he called China the aggressor against India in the ongoing LAC standoff in Eastern Ladakh, which began after 20 Indian soldiers were killed in Galwan Valley in June last year. China officially confirmed the deaths of four of its soldiers, although Indian officials said over 40 Chinese soldiers had been killed.
Burns also raised multiple issues Beijing considers sensitive in a single statement. During his confirmation at the US Senate, he said the “genocide in Xinjiang, abuses in Tibet, and bullying of Taiwan must stop”. Burns called China’s the United States’ “most dangerous competitor”.
It provoked an angry reply. “China opposes Nicholas Burns' remarks, which are full of Cold War and zero-sum mentality,” Wang Wenbin, Foreign Ministry spokesman, told a news conference.
An editorial published by China’s state-run news outlet Global Times said his “arrogance” would cause the US to suffer setbacks in China. However, the editorial noted that Burns may have taken a tougher stance before the US Senate than what he would as a diplomat in China, saying he would be the executor of US policy on China, and that dealing with him would be akin to dealing with the State Department.
Burns is set to begin his mission in China by the end of November. Another article by Global Times said he was likely to serve as a “voice tube and policy enforcer”, rather than as a “mediator”.
In September 2020, the former US ambassador to China Terry Branstad stepped down to aid Donald Trump in his re-election campaign. Under Trump, US-China relations soured significantly, with hallmarks of his foreign policy including a bitter trade war, disputes over intellectual property rights, sanctions on Chinese companies like Huawei and a general decline in engagement. Under Trump, the US increased the number of “Freedom of Navigation Operations” in the South China Sea, a movement that challenges China’s claims over international waters and territories contested by neighbouring states Taiwan, Vietnam, Philippines, and Japan.
The Biden administration retained several of Trump’s policy stances on China. Republicans have taken strong positions against Democrat leaders perceived as “soft” on China. The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee eventually backed Burns after much discussion, but a vote within the larger Senate remains to be held.
The fall in relations prompted renewed talk of a “new Cold War”, which President Biden sought to downplay in a September speech to the United Nations General assembly, where he said that the US would open a new era of “relentless diplomacy”.
But under Biden too, FONA operations have continued. In September, the US sent its nuclear-powered USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier through the sea for the second time this year. Biden has indirectly vowed to defend Taiwan if necessary. However, Burns has stood by the “One Taiwan” policy, even as both Democrats and Republicans have started calling to revisit it. Burns has said the US must oppose actions from Beijing that undermine the status quo.
In July, China sent a new envoy to Washington, Qin Gang. Mirroring Burns, Gang had been known for his sharp remarks against the US. A so-called “wolf warrior diplomat”—an aggressive and confrontational style of diplomacy that China adopted during the Xi Jinping regime—Gang said, “Some people in the US, immersed in their delusions that they are James Bond per se, simply can’t resist the urge to act out their own play. Haven’t they been worn out by such meaningless and harmful actions?”
