Cui Tiankai will serve as China's ambassador to the United States

Cui Tiankai will serve as China's ambassador to the United States. It is confirmed by reliable sources that China's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cui Tiankai will succeed next year...

It is confirmed by reliable sources that China's Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Cui Tiankai will succeed Zhang Yesui as the next ambassador to the United States next year.

Cui Tiankai has been highly regarded by the CCP’s top leaders for more than 10 years because of his involvement in affairs with Japan. Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping received extremely high standards of treatment during his visit to Japan in December 2009, when Cui Tiankai served as ambassador to Japan.

During the Jiang Zemin administration, Cui Tiankai served as the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Communist Party of China and was very experienced in dealing with Western media. After serving as the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Communist Party of China in January 2010, Cui Tiankai has also been interviewed by Western media many times. He is particularly knowledgeable about Sino-US relations and the US "rebalancing" strategy to the Asia-Pacific.

News confirms that Cui Tiankai will be appointed ambassador to the United States after Xi Jinping becomes president in 2013. Before the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Cui Tiankai had frequent foreign affairs activities and statements.

In July this year, when Cui Tiankai attended an event at the Asia Society in Hong Kong, and in the article "Sino-U.S. Relations in China's Diplomacy in the New Era—Also On the Joint Construction of a New Type of Major Power Relations between China and the United States" published that month, he emphasized that China and the United States should truly achieve positive interaction in the Asia-Pacific region.

He said that China never does anything that harms the core and major interests of the United States, but the actions of the United States on issues of China's core and major interests are difficult to satisfy China. China and the United States should work together to explore a positive interactive model of peaceful coexistence, healthy competition, and win-win cooperation in the Asia-Pacific.

Regarding the increasingly close military relationship between the United States and Australia, Cui Tiankai said when participating in the annual human rights dialogue in Canberra in July that China and Australia should join hands with other countries in the region to promote progress on common defense and regional security issues. He said that China and Australia should jointly be wary of the emergence of Cold War mentality.

He warned the United States and Japan about the Diaoyu Islands and the South China Sea

This year, as Japanese politicians hyped up the issue of "nationalization" of the Diaoyu Islands, Sino-Japanese relations dropped to a freezing point. On October 12, Cui Tiankai warned senior Japanese officials that Japan’s attempt to deny China’s territorial sovereignty over the Diaoyu Islands by denying facts was wishful thinking. It is useless for Japan to ignore the consensus between the leaders of China and Japan to "shelve disputes" and adopt an "ostrich policy".

While serving as China's ambassador to Japan in 2009, Cui Tiankai once said on the Diaoyu Islands issue that the reason why these issues (ownership of the Diaoyu Islands) still exist is largely related to the fact that China was poor and weak for a period of time in history and was bullied by foreign powers.

He said at the time: "Chinese people say they are right all over the world. We must make our reasons clear to the world and promote these issues to be resolved through negotiations." He believed that on the one hand, diplomats must persist and down-to-earth to promote the resolution of these issues. On the other hand, there is also a matter of weighing priorities.

Regarding the South China Sea issue, Cui Tiankai warned the United States on June 22 last year not to intervene in the tense South China Sea situation, saying that some countries in the South China Sea were "playing with fire" and the United States should not "draw the fire upon itself." When the Philippines and Latin America stirred up tensions in the South China Sea in the first half of 2012, Cui Tiankai said that the deadlock on the South China Sea issue was not initiated by China. He hopes that full communication between China and the United States on the South China Sea issue will help the United States continue to adopt a reasonable and responsible stance.

Negotiations are not afraid of "offending" the United States

In the two years since he served as deputy foreign minister, Cui Tiankai and US Assistant Secretary of State Kurt Campbell have chaired four rounds of Sino-US consultation meetings on Asia-Pacific affairs. However, what deserves the most attention is the negotiation between Cui Tiankai and the United States on the "Chen Guangcheng case."

It is understood that when Cui Tiankai visited the United States before, he visited Campbell's home (a holiday farm) as a guest, but the two parties had an unpleasant experience, which led to the breakdown of the relationship. During the negotiations on the Chen Guangcheng case between China and the United States in May 2012, Cui Tiankai even got angry with Campbell in person.

During the Fourth Economic Strategic Dialogue between China and the United States in May this year, Campbell proposed that Chen Guangcheng go to the United States in advance. Cui Tiankai was extremely annoyed by this and even shouted in Chinese, "I don't want to talk to him anymore" (Campbell). Later, after Dai Bingguo's persuasion, and only after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao held talks with Hillary, Cui Tiankai once again sat at the negotiating table with Campbell and other U.S. representatives.

Of course, Cui Tiankai "doesn't want to see" Campbell, and he also has a certain connection with the latter's "pro-Japanese" and hawkish tone. Campbell has always been a "supporter" of the U.S.'s "pivot to Asia" and the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty. He usually pays little attention to the very pragmatic views of "experts" at the working level of the U.S. State Department on the Diaoyu Islands issue. Sources in Washington once revealed to Duowei News that the breakdown in the relationship between Cui Tiankai and Campbell partly led to the cold reception of Hillary Clinton's visit to China in September this year.