U.S. President Joe Biden has decided to nominate Nicholas Burns as the new U.S. ambassador to China, the White House said in an August 20 statement.
Burns is a longtime career diplomat and now a professor of diplomacy and international relations at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the White House statement said. Burns has served as deputy secretary of state, ambassador to Greece, ambassador to NATO and other positions. He is fluent in French and is familiar with Arabic and Greek.
On the same day, Biden also nominated former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel as U.S. ambassador to Japan and Michael Bartel as U.S. ambassador to Tanzania.
CNN reported that the nominations still need to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Reported that Biden took office more than six months, only the new U.S. ambassador to Mexico to be confirmed. Over the past month, Biden has begun to speed up his ambassadorial nomination. Still, some key positions in U.S. ambassadors abroad remain vacant.
Biden announced his intention to appoint Nicholas Burns to the U.S. ambassador to China
On August 20, U.S. President Joe Biden announced his intention to appoint Nicholas Burns to the U.S. ambassador to China.
Burns has worked with the Chinese government on Afghanistan as deputy secretary of state, state department press secretary, U.S. ambassador to Greece and U.S. representative to NATO.
