The US Senate confirmed long-time China critic David Perdue as the new US ambassador to China on Tuesday, a key role amid escalated bilateral tensions and a high-stakes tariff showdown between the world’s two largest economies.
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Perdue, 75, a former US senator for the state of Georgia and a veteran business executive, was confirmed in a 67-29 vote that included some support from across the aisle. Known for his views of China as a global threat, Perdue joins US President Donald Trump’s China team, which is already filled with hawks.
At his confirmation hearing in April, Perdue said that the United States must take a “nuanced, non-partisan and strategic” view towards China, and called the US relationship with China the “most consequential diplomatic challenge of the 21st century”.
But the hearing was a rehash of his views that Beijing was waging “a new kind of war” against the US and that China posed a threat to “the current world order”.
In response to his confirmation, China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday reiterated its “consistent and clear” position on China-US ties and trade. In previous remarks, the ministry said that China would “fight to the end”, while the “door is open” for dialogue that must be based on “equality, mutual respect and reciprocity”.
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Steep tariffs have plunged Beijing and Washington into trade brinkmanship; China retaliated with tariffs of 125 per cent on the US after Trump slapped 145 per cent tariffs on most Chinese goods.