Despite Baucus Nomination, Critics Cite Void in China Lineup
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Version 0 of 1. WASHINGTON — With his appointment of a seasoned Senate free-trader as his new ambassador to Beijing, President Obama has chosen an emissary who faithfully reflects his priorities with China, which have tended to emphasize jobs and other economic issues. But Mr. Obama still has a way to go to restock the deep China bench he recruited in his first term, raising the larger question of who in the upper ranks of his administration, aside from the president himself, will have an influential voice in dealing with the Chinese. On Friday, Mr. Obama formally nominated Senator Max Baucus, Democrat of Montana, as his new envoy, sending a congressional power broker with a history of fighting for American beef exports to Beijing. “For more than two decades,” the president said, “Max Baucus has worked to deepen the relationship between the United States and China.” Mr. Baucus, however, does not compensate for Timothy F. Geithner, the former Treasury secretary; Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former secretary of state; and Tom Donilon, the former national security adviser, whose departures left a palpable gap in terms of high-level engagement with Beijing, according to former officials, diplomats and experts on the relationship. “The U.S. is missing a natural go-to person,” said Jon M. Huntsman Jr., who served as Mr. Obama’s ambassador to China from 2009 to 2011, before leaving to run for the Republican presidential nomination. “On our side, there’s a strategy gap, and it’s complicated by a leadership void.” That void is all the more notable given Mr. Obama’s much-advertised strategic shift to Asia. It has been exacerbated in the past year because the president was forced to cancel a trip to the region to deal with the government shutdown, leaving the field to China’s leaders. Mr. Obama’s unusual “shirt-sleeves summit” meeting with President Xi Jinping in June at a desert estate in Southern California, by most accounts, failed to break the ice. Administration officials dispute that a new cabinet lineup means China is getting less attention. They point to highly engaged officials like Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker; the United States trade representative, Michael B. Froman; and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, who this week rebuked China after its warship nearly collided with an American cruiser in the South China Sea. And they say that Secretary of State John Kerry, in particular, has made progress with China on issues like climate change. “The hunt for the China person in the administration is a scavenger hunt that misses the fundamental point, which is that U.S.-China relations is a team sport and the team captain is President Obama,” said Daniel R. Russel, the assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs, who previously was in charge of Asia policy at the National Security Council. Still, there is no ranking Obama official who approaches the level of energy or focus on China that Henry M. Paulson Jr. brought as Treasury secretary under President George W. Bush. Given the sensitivities of Chinese culture and the complexities of its relationship with the United States, analysts say such high-level interlocutors are vital. “There is a level of deference when the U.S. designates someone of high standing to manage the relationship,” said Orville Schell, the Arthur Ross Director of the Center for U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society. “This is something that Chinese culture and politics begs for.” Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has taken on some of that role, traveling to Beijing two weeks ago for five and a half hours of meetings with President Xi. The two got to know each other well during reciprocal visits to Beijing and Washington, and on this trip, the vice president spoke bluntly to Mr. Xi about China’s military muscle-flexing in its coastal waters and other issues. But for reasons of protocol and the maturing of the relationship, officials said, it is difficult for the vice president to fully embody the role of point person. Some in the administration also argue that the Chinese feel they can exploit a single point of contact by turning that person into an advocate. In Mr. Obama’s first term, Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Geithner both laid claim to China. Mr. Geithner, the son of an Asia expert at the Ford Foundation who studied Mandarin, steeped himself in China issues during a previous stint at the Treasury Department. What Mrs. Clinton lacked in training, she made up for in mileage, making her first trip as secretary of state to Asia and returning regularly to Beijing. Mr. Kerry’s most visible efforts have been in the Middle East, where he is trying to broker peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians. But he just completed a trip to Vietnam and the Philippines, where he announced aid for maritime security that was aimed at easing fears about China’s muscular role in the South China Sea. While Mr. Geithner’s successor, Jacob J. Lew, has far less background in China than Mr. Geithner, officials note that he was the first senior American official to travel to Beijing after Mr. Xi ascended to the presidency. As national security adviser, Mr. Donilon also asserted himself on China, traveling to Beijing several times, once with Lawrence H. Summers, then Mr. Obama’s chief economic adviser. Officials note that his successor, Susan E. Rice, cut her teeth on China by negotiating with its diplomats at the United Nations, where she was ambassador. Mr. Baucus, unlike other candidates for the Beijing post, does not speak Chinese. But he is a familiar figure there, at least to economic officials, having taken part in numerous trade delegations and met with Chinese leaders, including Mr. Xi; former Prime Minister Wen Jiabao; and China’s ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai. With the United States and China in talks on a bilateral investment treaty, some analysts said Mr. Baucus might have a more significant tenure than his predecessor, Gary Locke, whose most visible accomplishment was streamlining the visa application process for Chinese tourists. “Once they finish negotiations on the treaty, they need to get it approved by the Senate,” said Erin Ennis, vice president of the U.S.-China Business Council. “Baucus is going to be useful in helping the Chinese understand what they need to do to win Senate approval.” |