Experienced in US-China relations, new Ambassador Ta Phong came to Washington with high hopes of improving the tense bilateral relationship.
"I want to strengthen China-US relations in a time of great difficulties and challenges. We hope the US will work with China to strengthen dialogue, handle differences and expand cooperation to put the relationship back on track," said new Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng after arriving at JFK Airport in New York on May 23 to take up his post.
Mr. Xie Feng was born in Jiangsu Province in April 1964. After graduating from the China Foreign Affairs Academy in 1986, he began working at the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Three years later, he was assigned to the Chinese Embassy in Malta.
Xie Feng's experience with US-China relations began when he was appointed to the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry in 1993. He worked there for seven years, before being assigned to the Chinese embassy in Washington in 2000.
Mr. Xie worked at the Chinese Embassy in the United States for nearly three years, focusing mainly on US congressional affairs. He then moved to manage communications for the embassy and became its spokesperson.
Mr. Ta Phong speaks at a press conference in Hong Kong in February 2020. Photo: AFP
Mr. Xie Feng returned to Beijing in 2003, continuing to work in the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs as deputy director, before returning to the United States to serve as counselor at the Chinese embassy in Washington. In October 2010, he returned to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and assumed the position of director of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs.
In 2014, Mr. Xie was appointed as China’s ambassador to Indonesia. During his three-year tenure in Jakarta, he worked to promote Beijing’s relations with the Southeast Asian nation, helping to reverse Indonesia’s stance toward China, helping the two countries become close partners.
From June 2017 to January 2021, Mr. Xie was promoted to the position of Deputy Foreign Minister in charge of Hong Kong affairs, then participated in the mediation effort between the Americas and China. In May 2021, he accompanied a large delegation of Latin American diplomats to visit Xinjiang.
Two months later, Mr. Xie met with US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman during her visit to China. He presented Ms. Sherman with a list of issues that Beijing wanted Washington to address to ease bilateral tensions.
The list included demands that the US drop its smear campaign and sanctions against China. Beijing also demanded that Washington drop charges against Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who was under house arrest in Canada awaiting extradition to the US.
In August 2022, when China was angry with then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, Mr. Xie twice summoned US Ambassador to Beijing Nicholas Burns.
He was also part of the Chinese delegation when President Xi Jinping met with US President Joe Biden in Bali in November 2022. Deputy Minister Xie also participated in discussions with senior US diplomats about Secretary of State Antony Blinken's planned visit to Beijing.
Mr. Ta was sent to the US to take up the position of ambassador at a time when the relationship between the two countries hit a 50-year low due to tensions related to trade, Taiwan, and the balloon shooting incident.
In a speech in March, President Xi Jinping accused the US and Western countries of seeking to counter China, "posing unprecedented and serious challenges to our country's development".
However, observers say the appointment of new Ambassador Ta Phong shows that Beijing may want to ease tensions in bilateral relations with the US.
Wang Yiwei, an international relations professor at Renmin University of China, said recent developments showed tensions were “easing” between the two countries. He said China recognized the need to “appropriately reduce” the level of confrontation with the US to ensure a favorable environment for development.
China’s ambassadorship to the United States has been vacant since late last year, when Ambassador Qin Gang was appointed Chinese Foreign Minister. This is the longest period of vacancy since the US and China normalized relations in 1979.
The decision to send Mr. Xie to the US followed a “frank, substantive and constructive” two-day meeting earlier this month in Vienna between US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi. Before Mr. Xie left for the US, President Biden said at a May 21 press conference in Hiroshima, Japan that US-China relations would “thaw soon.”
“US-China cooperation brings bilateral and global benefits, while conflict leads to harm to both sides and consequences for the whole world,” Mr. Xie said in a speech at a forum in Beijing in January. “Ensuring a stable and healthy trajectory for US-China relations is a responsibility we must earnestly fulfill for the benefit of both countries and the whole world.”
Such statements by Mr. Xie have raised hopes that US-China relations will warm up after a long period of tension. During his time at the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Mr. Xie pursued a style of wolf warrior diplomacy, but when he comes to the US, he may have to reconsider this approach, according to Phelim Kine, an analyst at Politico .
"Wolf warrior diplomacy doesn't seem to be working in Washington and I would be very surprised if he continued to pursue that style, rather than becoming a problem solver," said Susan Shirk, a former deputy assistant secretary of state in the Bill Clinton administration.
Observers say US-China relations have a chance to improve after Mr. Ta Phong presented his credentials to President Biden, but the strategic competition between the two superpowers will not cool down.
"Mr. Xie's experience or style is unlikely to help reverse or prevent the policy of increasing competition and reducing mutual dependence that both sides have chosen," said Ivan Kanapathy, former director in charge of China, Taiwan, and Mongolia at the US National Security Council.
Thanh Tam (According to Politico, USCNPM, WSJ, SCMP )
Source link
Comment (0)