Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg may soon be the next U.S. ambassador to China.
Lucky us.
“President-elect Joe Biden is considering a high-profile ambassadorship for Pete Buttigieg, possibly sending him to China,” Axios reports, adding that the job would allow the supposed rising Democratic star to “deepen his foreign policy chops.”
Isn’t there a less consequential way for Biden to repay the mayor for his support in the 2020 Democratic primary?
This is China we’re talking about, the most hostile and economically aggressive superpower operating opposite of the United States. Giving the ambassador post to an unseasoned millennial because he did nice things for the president-elect during the Democratic primary seems somewhat — Trumpy.
The Beijing gig, as Axios reminds us, “has often gone to experienced politicians, toward the middle or end of their careers, as a way to confer respect to the Chinese.”
However, the report adds, “A Buttigieg nomination would invert that model and give the Chinese an opportunity to get to know a potential future president. That happened with George H.W. Bush in 1974, when President Ford appointed him to the U.S. liaison office in Beijing.”
Bush was 50 years old when he landed the China job. At the time, he had served already as a member of the House, as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and as the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Buttigieg, in contrast, is only 38 years old. His professional experiences include eight years as the mayor of South Bend, eight years in the U.S. Navy Reserve, and a few years as a McKinsey consultant.
Biden’s team is reportedly considering other posts for the former mayor, but the Beijing ambassadorship appears to be at the top of the list.
Why on Earth would the Biden administration trust the former mayor of Indiana’s fourth-largest city to become the point man on China?
If I had to venture a guess, it is because the Biden administration will need someone who is fluent in both folksy small-town aphorisms and focused-group corporate-speak to help it sell the American public on the White House’s inevitable support for outsourcing more jobs to China.
You can see it now, somewhere in the near future, when the Biden administration needs to soften the news that a manufacturing plant in, say, Elkhart, Indiana, has moved to China. The president will call on the former mayor of South Bend to explain in his own flowery and substance-free way how this is actually a win for America.
“I believe Americans are ready for something big, something fair,” Buttigieg will say. “I believe we are ready to do profound things safely. We are building brighter futures of our better tomorrow.”
His words will carry the weight of a small-town guy who, shucks, also happens to be the U.S. ambassador to China. Giving the China job to Buttigieg would allow the president-elect to reward a 2020 primary ally while also staffing his administration with a bona fide Midwesterner who understands.
It’s either that or, as Luke Thompson suggests, someone on Biden’s team merely figured Buttigieg’s familiarity with fixing bread prices would make him a good fit for the land of the Great Leap Forward.
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An earlier version of this article stated incorrectly that South Bend is the third-largest city in Indiana. This is not true. It is the fourth-largest city. We apologize for the error, Evansville.
