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Trump Names Perdue as China Ambassador 12/06 06:06
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President-elect Donald Trump said Thursday he has
selected former Sen. David Perdue of Georgia to serve as his ambassador to
China, leaning on a former business executive turned politician to serve as the
administration's envoy to America's most potent economic and military adversary.
Trump said in a social media post that Perdue "brings valuable expertise to
help build our relationship with China."
Perdue lost his Senate seat to Democrat Jon Ossoff four years ago and ran
unsuccessfully in a 2022 primary against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Perdue pushed
Trump's debunked lies about electoral fraud during his failed bid for Georgia
governor.
During his time in the Senate, Perdue was labeled as "anti-China" in a 2019
Chinese think tank report. The former Georgia lawmaker advocated that the U.S.
needed to build a more robust naval force to cope with threats, including from
China.
Before launching his political career, Perdue held a string of top executive
positions, including at Sara Lee, Reebok and Dollar General.
Economic tensions will be a big part of the U.S.-China picture for the new
administration.
Trump has threatened to impose sweeping new tariffs on Mexico, Canada and
China as soon as he takes office as part of his effort to crack down on illegal
immigration and drugs. He said he would impose a 25% tax on all products
entering the country from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% tariff on
goods from China, as one of his first executive orders.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington cautioned earlier this week that there
will be losers on all sides if there is a trade war.
"China-US economic and trade cooperation is mutually beneficial in nature,"
embassy spokesman Liu Pengyu posted on X. "No one will win a trade war or a
#tariff war." He added that China had taken steps in the last year to help stem
drug trafficking.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian didn't comment on Perdue's
nomination, saying only, "I have noted the relevant reports" when asked about
it at a daily briefing in Beijing.
It is unclear whether Trump will actually go through with the threats or if
he is using them as a negotiating tactic.
The tariffs, if implemented, could dramatically raise prices for American
consumers on everything from gas to automobiles to agricultural products. The
U.S. is the largest importer of goods in the world, with Mexico, China and
Canada its top three suppliers, according to the most recent U.S. Census data.
Perdue, if confirmed, will have to negotiate a difficult set of issues that
goes beyond trade.
Washington and Beijing have long had deep differences on the support China
has given to Russia during its war in Ukraine, human rights issues, technology
and Taiwan, the self-ruled democracy that Beijing claims as its own.
Chinese President Xi Jinping said in a meeting with outgoing President Joe
Biden last month that Beijing stood "ready to work with a new U.S.
administration." But Xi also warned that a stable China-U.S. relationship was
critical not only to the two nations but to the "future and destiny of
humanity."
"Make the wise choice," Xi cautioned during his November meeting with Biden
on the sidelines of an international summit in Peru. "Keep exploring the right
way for two major countries to get along well with each other."
Trump's relationship with Xi started out well during his first term before
becoming strained over disputes about trade and the origins of the COVID-19
pandemic.
Trump seems particularly focused on using tariffs as a pressure point on Xi,
even threatening he would use tariffs as a cudgel to pressure Beijing to crack
down on the production of materials used in making fentanyl in Mexico that is
illegally sold in the United States.
A second Trump administration is expected to test U.S.-China relations even
more than the Republican's first term, when the U.S. imposed tariffs on more
than $360 billion in Chinese products.
That brought Beijing to the negotiating table, and in 2020, the two sides
signed a trade deal in which China committed to improve intellectual property
rights and buy an extra $200 billion of American goods. A couple years later, a
research group showed that China had bought essentially none of the goods it
had promised.
Ahead of Trump's return to power, many American companies, including Nike
and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away
from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by
as much as 45% next year.
Trump also filled out more of his immigration team Thursday, as he promises
mass deportations and border crackdowns.
He said he's nominating former Border Patrol Chief Rodney Scott to head U.S.
Customs and Border Protection. Scott, a career official, was appointed head of
the border agency in January 2020 and enthusiastically embraced then-President
Trump's policies, particularly on building a U.S.-Mexico border wall. He was
forced out by the Biden administration.
Trump also said he'd nominate Caleb Vitello as acting director of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency that, among other things,
arrests migrants in the U.S. illegally. Vitello is a career ICE official with
more than 23 years in the agency and most recently has been the assistant
director for the office of firearms and tactical programs.
The president-elect named the head of the Border Patrol Union, Brandon Judd,
as ambassador to Chile. Judd has been a longtime supporter of Trump's,
appearing with him during his visits to the U.S.-Mexico border, though he
notably supported a Senate immigration bill championed by Biden that Trump sank
in part because he didn't want to give Democrats an election-year win on the
issue.
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