United States Ambassadors To China

"Cruel war—war at home, and in the perspective distance a man on horseback with a drawn sword in his hand, some Atlantic Cæsar, or Cromwell, or Napoleon."

"Any time you're talking about the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and of the ability to manufacture them, and you add to that unstable or aggressive states, and North Korea and Iran meet both of those definitions, then you've got a terrible problem on your hands. And so I can't think of any two bigger problems right now that the world is facing than those two."

"Some people are saying, 'Well, we're so competitive with China, we should end the economic relationship'. Well, the consequence of that would be 750,000 American families wouldn't be able to put dinner on the table."

"We have competing interests here, and balancing those interests is the reality in the U.S.-China relationship. We're going to compete. We have to compete responsibly and keep the peace between our countries. But we also have to engage."

"I think there’s a lot of concern around the world that China has now become an agent of instability in the Taiwan Strait and that’s not in anyone’s interest."

"I defended the speaker [ Nancy Pelosi ]. I defended her right to travel to Taiwan. I defended the peace and stability that we’ve had in the Taiwan Strait for nearly six decades."

"I was an American diplomat for twenty-seven years and I wouldn’t trade a day of that career for anything. It was an extraordinary experience to serve our country and to live overseas with my family in five different diplomatic posts."

"I became interested in international politics from my experience living as an exchange student in Europe, both in high school and in college, and I wanted to contribute to a restoration of wise and effective American leadership in the world."

"America has never been perfectly bipartisan. But for that generation of congressional leaders and American presidents from Ford to H.W. Bush, there was a consensus in both political parties that American engagement in the world mattered, that it was in our interest, that we had obligations and that we should fulfill them, and that our alliances mattered."

"On 9/11, having friends and allies made all the difference in the world. As we look at the pandemic and a possible second wave, the global economic collapse, the challenge that China and other authoritarian countries are presenting to our democracies, do we really want to face all this alone? Having retreated, are we going to return to our senses and re-establish and strengthen these alliances? That is a rhetorical question, but it’s an important one for Americans."

"The United States is, in many ways, the linchpin of NATO. It’s true, NATO is an alliance of equals, a collective defense alliance, and a political organization. But the United States, by virtue of its size and power, has always been the leader of the alliance."

"We need a president and secretary of state who will value diplomacy. Really. And we need a president and secretary of state and a Congress that will embrace the fact that most of the big challenges ahead of us are not going to lend themselves to the use of military power, but to the need to build coalitions and strengthen alliances to fight common global problems, such as future pandemics, climate change, or trafficking of women and children."

"China is contesting the American-led democratic alliance system in East Asia. It’s contesting it militarily in the South and East China Seas. It’s contesting it via the development of a blue water navy and ballistic missiles, trying to push the American carrier task forces way out beyond the first island chain in the western Pacific. We cannot afford, and we should never accept, being dominated militarily by China in the Indo-Pacific. We’ve got to hold our position. No one wants to fight China, but we have an absolute right— working with Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Japan, India, Singapore, and Vietnam—to make sure that the Chinese are respecting the rule of law, maritime transit, and the sovereign territorial rights of other countries in that region."

"My entire life I knew that the United States was not perfect because of the Vietnam War and Watergate during my teenage years, and I knew that race in particular was a curse on our history. We had never gotten race right since the first slave ship arrived in Virginia in 1619. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and others have said that this is our original sin, of America itself, of our Constitution, which did not give African Americans, as you well know, full citizenship rights; nothing even close to it. But I feel now that America cannot be successful in its foreign and defense policy if we don’t heal and repair America at home. I’ve never felt that more strongly than I do right now."

"One of the reasons I really love teaching is it allows an older person like myself to be inspired by the optimism of younger people. Don’t lose that optimism, and don’t lose that conviction that you can change things—you can!"

"This is a unique position to be American Ambassador in China at this time, given the complexities in our relationship. When President Biden called me to ask me to take the job, of course I accepted, because, as a career diplomat… I think it’s one of the great challenges that we face around the world these days. We have a very large and very competent Mission here filled with people who are experts on every aspect of the relationship. So I take it as my job to help people in our Mission succeed, to be working on the issues that are critical to the future of our country, such as our very competitive relationship, the military competition between us in the Indo-Pacific, and the building up of our very important alliances with Japan, South Korea, Australia; our defense alliances and treaty agreements with the Philippines and Thailand; our strategic relationship with India."

"One of the motivations for the CHIPS [Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors] and Science Act is to make sure that we’re not only competitive in semiconductors, but that we actually have fabs in the United States that are world class. So that in a crisis, semiconductors – which are the building blocks of everything in a 21st century economy – are closer to home. The Chinese, I think in a way, have also learned that lesson, as I look at what the government here is trying to do. They’re trying to alter supply chains, they’re trying to insulate themselves, hypothetically, from pressure from the rest of the world in the future."

"We ought not to exaggerate their [ China ] strengths or underestimate the strengths of the United States. What we need is self confidence that the United States is a strong country."

"We certainly cannot trust the Chinese. Our responsibility is to make Taiwan a tough nut to crack."

"Well, I wish we lived in a world where I could sit down in front of Chinese CCTV and say what I wanted to and not have that edited or distorted by the state-controlled press. I mean, the reality is when you deal with the state-controlled press here, they often will completely fail to report any kind of constructive criticism, and they’ll only report when you say something positive. That’s not true of Chinese diplomats in the United States. They can write op-eds in the Washington Post, which nobody edits. And that’s part of the problem we face here."

"My message to young people all over the world, and in the U.S., and Canada and China is engage with each other. If this is going to be the most important bilateral relationship in the world, and it is, if we are the two strongest powers, we’ve got to find a way to live together in peace. it would be insanity to think that we would allow this relationship to descend into conflict or war. We’re not going to do that. And so our people have to work together, study together, do business together. Learn Mandarin if you’re Canadian or Brit or German or American. If you’re Chinese, you study in the United States. Our door is open to Chinese students. We want Chinese students to walk through the door of our universities. I was a university professor, taught many, well over a hundred Chinese students in 12 years, and they’re great students."

"You know, most of the major differences in the relationship have not been bridged. But the only way you can bridge them or manage the differences, because sometimes differences cannot be bridged. Our differences with China over Taiwan are not going to be easily bridged, but can we manage the differences in such a way that we are frank with each other? We in the United States defend our position as we have to do, but we don’t descend into conflict. That I think is the key test of diplomacy, and that’s what animates the men and women of our U.S. mission here in China."

"The people of China are not our enemy. We do want to live in peace with China. No person in their right mind should want this relationship to end up in conflict or in war."

"The Chinese people have been very civil to me and very welcoming as I travel around the country. You know, if you get into a conversation about Taiwan, most Chinese here are nationalistic, and an average Chinese citizen might defend their government on that. But they do, I think, understand that the relationship with the United States is critical for them, as ours is with China - that they want a peaceful future."

"It's sometimes about compromise. But often, diplomacy is also defending your side. We have a number of major disagreements with China, and we're not compromising. For instance, on Taiwan - we believe that the government here in Beijing has been far too aggressive in trying to intimidate and coerce with their military actions in the Taiwan Strait. Second, we obviously do not want to see any kind of lethal military support by China to Russia for Russia's brutal illegal war in Ukraine. The third example of that - we can't compromise, cannot, on human rights. And during this visit, Secretary Blinken raised difficult human rights issues - forced labor in Xinjiang, the actions by the government of China that are repressive in Tibet and, of course, the end, really, of civil liberties and democratic freedoms in Hong Kong."

"China has a very different view of global governance and the future of the liberal order. And of course, we are attached to a liberal order because it speaks to our values and our interests, and we think this is the best order of the world."

"More broadly, we will continue to assert foundational American values, including with regard to the primacy of human rights in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong. Let us remember that the rule of law, fair play, and human dignity and freedom are essential to a successful business climate. With that in mind, American firms must continue to abide by the strict requirements of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act."

"The United States is disappointed that China continues to provide political and diplomatic support to Moscow’s fundamental break with the United Nations Charter two years ago in its brutal, illegal invasion of Ukraine. We are disappointed the state-controlled press here blames NATO and the European Union for this war. The blame is squarely on the shoulders of one man in the Kremlin. We are very concerned by the actions of Chinese companies that fuel Russia’s defense industrial complex. We have raised those concerns quite recently in the last two to three weeks with our Chinese counterparts. China’s silence on the existential issue of Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence is deafening. And its support to Russia is very troubling indeed."

"China and the US have a joint interest as well as a global responsibility, to work together on transnational challenges – such as climate change, global macroeconomic stability including debt relief, health security, and global food security."

"The Biden administration encourages all of the Embassies to take part in the international debate… We have an embassy Weibo account, we have WeChat accounts, we have a Twitter account of 1.2 million followers, I have my own separate Twitter account. What we’re trying to do here is speak to the Chinese people and give them accurate information about us. We try to give the Chinese people an accurate portrayal of who we are as a country, what we believe in, and correct basic misstatements by their own government about us. There’s a powerful censorship body here. When Secretary Blinken gave his big speech on the US-China relationship, the major speech of this administration, it was censored on WeChat and Weibo within two hours. We put it back up a couple of days later and it was censored within 20 minutes. But in that two-hour span, and in that 20-minute span, you can get a lot of people looking at it. We believe in freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and we think that people have a right to free and accurate information. That’s our goal, and to show respect to the people of China, respect for their culture, and their civilization, their history.There are times we use our social media presence to debate the government here, to correct misstatements by the government, to criticize. So, I think we’re never going to live in a world where social media is not a presence."

"We think we have about 290,000 Chinese students in the United States. The United States remains the leading destination for Chinese students. We just had a major fair here two weeks ago at the Embassy on a Saturday for Chinese students and their parents to familiarize themselves with the visa process, and also, most importantly, educational opportunities in the United States. Our doors are open to Chinese students. We want Chinese students to study in our country."

"To a certain extent, what we’ve learned from nearly three years now of the global pandemic is the over reliance that some of us have had on supply chains from China in critical materials, critical for the functioning of our economy or for the industrial enterprises of our most competitive industries. So I think there’s been a major movement to try to make sure that we control our own [supply chains] in certain industries, [so] we have greater access and more reliability about supply chains. This is not just a lesson that we’ve learned; the Europeans [and] Japanese have learned this. You’ve seen movement around the world to make sure that, in a crisis, you control your destiny, and you control your own fate, so your economy can continue to perform at a high level, and you’re not at the mercy of an autocratic power that might deny you critical materials. So, that’s a lesson we’ve learned, and you’ve heard our President, other senior members of our government and many members of the business community talk about that."

"I often get asked about decoupling, but it’s not a word that we’ve used. I always say in my talks with the business community, we’re not actively seeking to decouple two economies that have come together over 45 years, a $718 billion two-way trade relationship annually, with thousands, tens of thousands of companies interacting with each other. If either side is beginning to decouple, it’s more China than the United States. They’ve talked about it more – they don’t use the word – but that’s certainly what they’re signaling in some respects, and they’ve been taking actions far longer than we have."

"I think we’re called to pray for our country, for our leaders, and yes, even our president. In his role as president I think we should pray for Barack Obama. But I think we need to be very specific about how we pray. We should pray like Psalms 109:8 says. It says, “Let his days be few, and let another have his office.”"

"Now guys, I’m just a dumb business guy for right over that hill, right there, and I can tell you, that is a lie right out of the pit of hell."

"But the most insidious thing that Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden are trying to perpetrate, and Bernie and Elizabeth and Kamala, or what? Kamala or Kamala or Kamala mala mala, I don’t know. Whatever. They’re trying to perpetrate a lie, and that is that socialism, this radical socialism that they’re trying to sell us, is better than our beloved democracy. We’re not going to let that stand."

"I need you to do one thing. Stand with me, stand with our President [ Donald Trump ], and let’s make damn sure that the road to socialism never runs through the state of Georgia. God bless you guys."

"We need to create a new beginning by dealing with the very real crisis of leadership we face today. It’s why I ran for the Senate in the first place because we need a new perspective in Washington."

"Like many Americans, I am outraged by Washington’s dysfunction, its fiscal irresponsibility, its lack of leadership in foreign policy, its intrusiveness and over reach, and its negative impact on hardworking Americans."

"I grew up in a small military town in Middle Georgia, working on our family’s farms. My mom and dad were public school teachers and I grew up modestly, like most people there. I worked my way through college and was blessed with a business career that took me from the factory floor to become a Fortune 500 CEO. My story is not unique. It is the American story. Only in America is this possible thanks to hard work and self-reliance. It’s called the American Dream and it’s our job to make sure it lasts. Many people today believe this dream no longer exists and that we need big government to provide us with more and more financial security. I disagree totally. I believe our best days lie ahead, but we have to act boldly if we are to save this dream and our very way of life."

"As an outsider to the political process, I am humbled by the privilege to serve my country as a U.S. Senator. I am sobered by the immense responsibility of representing the people of Georgia. And I am encouraged by the opportunities we have to solve this crisis of leadership and create a new beginning."

"To create a new beginning, we must get back to our founding principles, articulated in our Constitution, that created this miracle called America in the first place: economic opportunity, fiscal responsibility, limited government, and individual liberty. When government grows larger, individual liberty declines. I believe that our Founders were committed to the concept of citizen legislators and could not perceive of the potential rise of career politicians."

"The progressive policies of the past 100 years, and particularly the egregious policies of this current administration, have failed the very people they were intended to help: the working middle class. Instead, Washington has created a spiraling situation that will only take us deeper into debt. What’s worse, we have over $100 trillion in future unfunded liabilities related to Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, federal pensions and interest on the federal debt."

"To create a new beginning, it’s time for this eminent body, the United States Senate, to rise above partisan politics and do the right thing. It starts with leadership. It starts with making hard choices. It starts with telling the American people the unvarnished truth. It starts with no longer kicking the can down the road. It starts with having the courage to actually solve these problems, independent of how it might affect our re-election chances."

"Let us fight to find common ground to create a new beginning, for our country, for people back home who are struggling, and for the future of our children and our children’s children."

"Our Founders got it right. They would remind us of that commitment and encourage us today to put our differences aside and work together to solve these sometimes overwhelming problems. Together, we can put our differences aside. Together, we can do the right thing. Together, we can create a new beginning."

"There are basically two options. If you listen to what they say, China – they quote Confucius and they quote Sun Tzu all the time. I’m talking about the leader – the leadership now. Seven percent of the population of China are members of the Communist Party. And many of their leadership actually believes some of the propaganda that they put out today. But what they say – they quote Confucius a lot."

"So we had two options in China. One, I think we can enter into another cold war, and we can slip into that very easily. In fact, I’m not sure we’re not in the early days of that right now. A cold war with an arms race. And if we sit here and think that we’re going to win the next arms race the way we won the last one – by not firing a bullet and by outspending our adversary – I personally, as a financial guy, I just don’t see that happening if it’s mano a mano. With 1.4 million people – billion people, and we’ve got 300 and something. That’s not the answer. And the answer is, even if that were the case what we’ve got to do is basically build our number-one asset. And that’s our allies around the world."

"But the way I look at the world: There’s state-controlled countries and there are self-determination countries. Now, there are different forms of self-determination. There’s social democracies, like France. There’s representative democracies, like ours. But in self-determination it’s pretty clear, it’s a monolithic model. And that is, a few people get power, and they dictate to the rest of the people what their – what life is going to be about."

"But if we cooperate from the standpoint of economic development of the world – think about this: There are 80 million people, refugees, today roaming the face of the Earth. Eighty million. We’re generating the next generation of terrorists around the world today. We’re doing that, the West is. And so by not addressing that issue collectively it’s going to overwhelm us."