Generational reshuffle put on hold as Cui Tiankai stays in Washington in lead-up to US president’s maiden China trip
Beijing’s top envoy to the United States has reached retirement age but is staying in the post to help steer relations through US President Donald Trump’s maiden visit to China next month.
Despite rumours he was about to step down and speculation about likely successors, ambassador Cui Tiankai, 65 this month, had been asked to postpone his retirement amid preparations for the Trump visit, diplomatic sources said.
It’s a good day for China’s diplomats as foreign policy chief lands seat on Politburo
Chinese diplomats said sweeping generational changes to the country’s diplomatic establishment were imminent following the promotion of State Councillor Yang Jiechi to the Communist Party Politburo and the unveiling of China’s new leadership make-up at the first plenum of the party’s 19th Central Committee on Wednesday, the day after its twice-a-decade party congress closed.
Cui had earlier said privately he would soon step down from the task of handling Beijing’s complex love-hate relationship with Washington.
Sources said Cui remaining in the post underlined just how much importance Beijing was placing on Trump’s visit, which the leadership sees as a touchstone moment for bilateral ties amid signs of growing tensions.
It could also be read as a recognition of Cui’s personal contribution to keeping bilateral ties on track for the past four and a half years, pundits said. They generally speak highly of Cui, but said his retirement was unlikely to be postponed for long.
Former US diplomat Robert Daly said Cui was well-respected in the US and was an “extremely effective” ambassador, a valued interlocutor and a voice that was sought out in discussions around Washington.
“What you need in an ambassador from China is somebody who accurately and thoroughly conveys Chinese policies and the rationales and thinking behind those polices,” said Daly, director of the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States at the Woodrow Wilson Centre. “He’s a master of a couple of different modes of discourse in the US, in English. He has more modes of addressing Americans than any of the previous ambassadors.
Has China overplayed the Kushner card in dealing with the White House?
“He’s very able to counter punch when he feels the need. He doesn’t throw the first punch. He’s too much of a diplomat.
“Of course he toes the party line. That’s his job, but there are better and worse ways of doing that and he has been an effective spokesman for and representative of Beijing to Washington.”
Steve Tsang, director of the SOAS China Institute in London, said: “He may well be asked to stay on because handling Trump is delicate and difficult and he seems to have done a good job of it. But the risk of not being able to sustain the success so far may well be the reason for Cui to want to be relieved of this mission.”
Gal Luft, co-director of the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, a Washington-based think tank, said no diplomat was indispensable.
