President Joe Biden plans to nominate veteran U.S. diplomat Nicholas Burns to serve as U.S. ambassador to China, the White House said Friday, signaling the administration may be looking for the envoy to play a more central role in the increasingly fractious relations between the two global rivals.
The choice of Burns, a retired career Foreign Service officer who served as undersecretary of state between 2005 and 2008, marks a shift for the role of the ambassador to Beijing, the ranks of which over the past decade have been filled by former politicians, not seasoned diplomats.
If confirmed by the Senate, Burns would head to China as the two countries' ties are at their lowest point in decades, and fill a post left vacant since October, after former President Donald Trump's envoy to China, Terry Branstad, stepped down.