Former U.S. Sen. David Perdue of Georgia arrived Thursday in China as President Trump’s new ambassador, taking up the post days after the two sides reached a 90-day pause in their trade war after talks in Geneva.
Mr. Perdue landed in Beijing a little more than two weeks after the Senate voted in favor of his nomination on April 29, with 67 votes for and 29 against, plus four abstentions.
Georgia’s current U.S. senators — Democrats Raphael Warnock and Mr. Perdue’s erstwhile opponent, Jon Ossoff — both voted against the nomination.
Before last week, Mr. Trump had all but embargoed Chinese imports, slapping a blanket 145 percent tariff on the country with the professed purpose of addressing imbalances in trade between the world’s two largest economies.
Mr. Trump has also aired American grievances over items like U.S. market access in the world’s second largest economy and China’s role in exporting the precursor ingredients for fentanyl.
Import orders from Chinese factors have plummeted since the tit-for-tat conflict began just after Mr. Trump was inaugurated in January.
Stocks surged this week on the news that the U.S. would reduce tariffs to 30 percent (10 percent plus 20 percent more for China’s purported role in the fentanyl crisis) from 145 percent.
China said it would reduce its tariffs on U.S. goods from 125 percent to 10 percent as the two sides work toward a more permanent deal.
In a nomination hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month, Mr. Perdue struck a firm tone, accusing China of infiltrating U.S. infrastructure with cyber attacks and otherwise undermining American interests abroad.
“We’ve acquiesced through this globalization in the last two decades to basically China and people who would do us harm. The reciprocal nature that we want with China — I think President Trump is all over that,” Mr. Perdue said in his hearing.
But the former Fortune 500 CEO, who once lived in Hong Kong and sourced products from China for Reebok, Dollar General and other companies, also noted that he would want to seek productively with the country on a variety of issues including trade and curbing the export of fentanyl precursors.
A close ally of Mr. Trump who undertook an unsuccessful primary challenge to popular Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Mr. Perdue is one of at least three Georgians appointed to ambassadorial postings under the new administration. He is the first to be confirmed.
Former University of Georgia running back Herschel Walker, who lost in a Trump-backed campaign against Mr. Warnock in a Senate race, was named ambassador to the Bahamas.
Former Buckhead cityhood promoter Bill White was named envoy to Belgium.
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