U.S. President Joe Biden plans to announce that he has selected R. Nicholas Burns, a former ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as his ambassador to China, The New York Times reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the process. With the selection, Biden is turning to a seasoned diplomat to serve in one of the country’s highest-profile diplomatic postings. It was not clear when the nomination would be announced, according to the sources. Burns, if confirmed by the Senate, would come to his posting at high-pressure moments in the U.S. relationship with China. The Biden administration wants to fill the role with someone who has extensive diplomatic experience and Burns meets that criteria, the sources said. The role of top U.S. envoy in Beijing will be a challenging one. The Biden administration is faced with a vast set of challenges when it comes to its relationship with China. The administration is reviewing its posture toward Beijing, but officials like Secretary of State Antony Blinken have said they want to engage “from a position of strength.” Diplomats and regional experts have emphasized how important it is for whomever is named as ambassador to be perceived as having influence with Biden. “The most important thing I think for an ambassador is to have a good relationship with the president and have some ability to directly communicate with the president and the key people around him,” said Bonnie Glaser, a senior adviser for Asia and the director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Blinken has spoken of the importance of career diplomats and the need for invigorating U.S. diplomacy. There is an expectation that Biden will return to a more traditional mix of political and career appointees for the ambassador jobs — a shift from the previous administration that leaned heavily on political picks, a number of whom were unqualified. “I am determined to put our career folks in positions of responsibility and leadership, and I am absolutely determined that politics are not going to come into this building,” Blinken told NBC News at the beginning of February. Burns, a university professor, columnist, lecturer and a former American diplomat, previously served as undersecretary of state under former U.S. President George W. Bush and as U.S. envoy to Greece and NATO. He is now the executive director of the Aspen Strategy Group and Aspen Security Forum. He’s also a professor of the practice of diplomacy and international relations at the Harvard Kennedy School. The 64-year-old from New York is also the founder and director of the Future of Diplomacy Project and faculty chair of the Project on the Middle East, and India and South Asia. Burns, who also speaks French, Arabic and Greek, has spent his career working closely with China. His track record includes a position at Cohen Group, a consulting firm started by William Cohen, who was secretary of defense during former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s second term. Burns also serves on the board of Harvard’s Belfer Center, which regularly carries out cybersecurity events alongside Chinese military officials. He has even appeared on China Global Television Network (CGTN). At a 2020 Aspen Institute event, Burns said of China: “We can’t see them as the enemy because we need them.” Notably, Burns is a member of some of the most elite globalist think tanks and nonprofits, such as the Atlantic Council, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The CFR has as its aim the establishment of a one-world government and serves as recruiting grounds for the intelligence community, along with all sectors of government, business, academia and the media. The Rockefeller dynasty played a major role in its founding and David Rockefeller even served as its chairman for 15 years. Founded in 1961, the Washington, D.C.-based Atlantic Council is similar to the CFR — a mechanism by which the globalist establishment staffs key positions in government and influences decision-makers. The council was founded with the goal of fostering greater integration between North America and Europe. Burns served in the U.S. Government for 27 years. Before entering the Foreign Service, Burns, who was born in 1956 and raised in Massachusetts, worked as program officer at A.T. International, a nonprofit organization specializing in economic assistance for third-world countries. As the undersecretary of state for political affairs, the Department of State’s third-ranking official, appointed by President Bush, he oversaw U.S. policy in each region of the world. Prior to his assignment, Burns was the United States permanent representative to the NATO. As ambassador to the NATO, he headed the combined State-Defense Department U.S. Mission to NATO at a time when the alliance committed to new missions in Iraq, Afghanistan and the global war against terrorism, and accepted seven new members. From 1997 to 2001, Burns was U.S. ambassador to Greece. During his tenure as ambassador, the U.S. expanded its military and law enforcement cooperation with Greece, strengthened its partnership in the Balkans, and increased trade, investment and people-to-people programs. From 1995 to 1997, Burns was spokesman of the Department of State and acting assistant secretary for public affairs for Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Secretary Madeleine Albright. In this position, he gave daily press conferences on U.S. foreign policy issues, accompanied both secretaries of state on all their foreign trips and coordinated all of the department’s public outreach programs. Burns served for five years (1990-1995) on the National Security Council staff at the White House. He was special assistant to President Clinton and senior director for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia affairs. He had lead responsibility in the White House for advising the president on all aspects of U.S. relations with the 15 countries of the former Soviet Union. Under President Bush, he was director for Soviet (and then Russian) affairs. During this time, he attended all U.S.-Soviet summits and numerous other international meetings and specialized on economic assistance issues, U.S. ties with Russia and Ukraine, and relations with the Baltic countries. Burns began his Foreign Service career in Africa and the Middle East. He was an intern at the U.S. Embassy in Nouakchott, Mauritania, vice consul and staff assistant to the ambassador in Cairo, Egypt, between 1983 and 1985, and then political officer at the American Consulate General in Jerusalem from 1985 to 1987. In this position, he coordinated U.S. economic assistance to the Palestinian population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Burns has been awarded the State Department’s Superior Honor Award for outstanding performance three times. He has been decorated by the governments of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for his work in securing withdrawal of Russian military forces from the Baltic region in the 1990s and for helping to secure their admittance to the NATO. News reports have described Burns as a statesman and professor, overlooking his senior role with the diplomat-for-hire firm the Cohen Group, which advises defense contractors in Asia, and U.S. corporations seeking opportunities in China. More pertinent is Burns’ work for a chemicals company named Entegris, whose products are essential to the production of microchips. As a board member, he earns a six-figure salary and holds millions of dollars in stock. Burns holds almost US$5 million in the company’s stock. Entegris brought him on in 2011 and draws on his expertise “in navigating complex regulatory environments throughout the world.” Burns earned about US$230,000 in fees and stock options last year, at the same time that he served as an unpaid adviser to the Biden campaign. (SD-Agencies) | 