San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Biden nominates envoys for posts in China, Japan
President Biden is nominating longtime former senior State Department official Nicholas Burns to serve as his ambassador to China and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to serve as his envoy to Japan. Emanuel was also a former three-term congressman who served as President Barack Obama’s first White House chief of staff and was a senior adviser in President Bill Clinton’s administration.
If confirmed by the Senate, Emanuel will be dispatched to Tokyo at a critical point in the U.S.Japan relationship as Biden has made strengthening relations with partners in the Pacific a priority as he increases focus on China.
With his pick of Burns, Biden turns to a seasoned career foreign service officer to serve as his envoy to arguably the most difficult diplomatic mission. The president has repeatedly called China the most significant economic competitor for the U.S. and a rising national security concern.
Biden had considered naming Emanuel to serve as his transportation secretary but ultimately passed him over in the face of fierce opposition from some in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party who took issue with his record on policing and school closures in predominantly Black neighborhoods during his time
Former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, if confirmed, will serve as U.S. ambassador in Tokyo.
as Chicago’s mayor.
Emanuel served as an informal adviser to Biden’s White House campaign and has been a significant force in Democratic Party politics for much of the last three decades. He left Congress to serve as Obama’s first White House chief of staff, helping the president shepherd his signature health care law and push for major stimulus in the wake of the Great Recession.
As the House Democrats’ chief fundraiser in 2006, he was the architect of the wave election that delivered his party to the majority for the first time in a dozen years, and made Nancy Pelosi the first female speaker in history.
As mayor, Emanuel touted record high school graduation rates in the nation’s third largest city and his success recruiting several large corporations to relocate to Chicago among his chief accomplishments.
But he faced criticism for soaring homicide rates, a fraught relationship with the Chicago Teachers Union, and mounting unmet pension obligations for city workers. Much of the city’s financial plight was something Emanuel inherited from his predecessor Richard Daley’s administration.
Burns previously served as undersecretary of state under President George W. Bush and as U.S. envoy to Greece and NATO. He also served as State Department spokesman and spent five years on the White House National Security Council, a tenure that overlapped the Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush administrations.
Burns is now the executive director of the Aspen Strategy Group and Aspen Security Forum. He’s also a professor at the Harvard Kennedy School.