Senators voted 86-12 on Thursday to advance the nomination of President Trump’s pick for ambassador to China, setting up an expected confirmation vote next week.
Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad is expected to be an important lieutenant to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who has had to travel to Beijing once already for talks related to the threat of North Korean nuclear weapons.
“I will work tirelessly to represent America and her citizens to the best of my ability,” Branstad told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his confirmation hearing. “I will champion American interests in China with as much fervor and dedication as I have championed Iowa’s interests during my more than 22 years as governor.”
That task will mean engaging on a broad range of issues with one of the fastest-rising world powers. The size of China’s economy makes it an important trade partner or adversary in economic disputes. At the same time, that economic strength has propelled a military buildup and aggressive foreign policy, and China has asserted sovereignty rights over much of the South China Sea, buttressed by the construction of artificial islands that can house military forces.
Branstad will be working with a Chinese government now run by a president he met for the first time in 1985, when Xi Jinping traveled to Iowa as part of an agriculture delegation. “A connection was made and a friendship was founded,” Branstad said. “To this day, President Xi still speaks fondly of Iowa and the hospitality he enjoyed there so many years ago. If confirmed, I hope to use my unique position as an “old friend” of President Xi and a trusted confidant of President Trump to positively influence the U.S.-China relationship.”
