The Senate confirmed former Georgia Sen. David Perdue as the new U.S. ambassador to China on Tuesday.
The vote broke down mostly along party lines. Fifty-one Republicans voted in support of Perdue along with 15 Democrats and one independent lawmaker. A total of 28 Democrats voted against Perdue’s confirmation along with one independent legislator.
His confirmation — which had been widely expected — will put Perdue at the forefront of administration efforts to navigate a U.S.-China relationship roiled by a trade conflict and rising concerns about Beijing’s increasingly aggressive military footprint in the Indo-Pacific.
Perdue’s pitch to committee members during his confirmation hearing earlier this month was a rehash of his views that Beijing is waging “a new kind of war” against the U.S. and that China poses a threat to “the current world order.” He pledged that curbing China’s exports of precursor chemicals to Mexico that cartels process into fentanyl that ends up in the U.S. will be “one of our top priorities” as ambassador.
Perdue, who served as a Republican senator for Georgia from 2015-2021, is a longtime Trump supporter. His pre-political career included stints as CEO of Dollar General and a top executive at Sara Lee and Reebok. Perdue was once a business-friendly advocate of reducing China’s trade deficit but has made a sharp pivot in recent months to embracing a particularly hawkish stance on Beijing.
But Perdue may struggle to make inroads with Chinese authorities amid the rancor of the ongoing U.S.-China tariff spat.
“It will be extremely difficult for him at this time when the two giants seem to be wrestling with one another,” said retired Senior Col. Zhou Bo, a Chinese military expert and a fellow at Tsinghua University’s Center for International Security.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Senate Foreign Relations Chair Jim Risch (R-Idaho) stressed the difficulty of the post in comments ahead of the vote.
“Sen. Perdue, you have a heavy work cut out for you — this is going to be a challenge as we go forward, particularly over the next four years,” Risch said. He added: “We need a strong leader like David Perdue at the front of our fight with the Chinese government to execute on President Trump’s vision.”
Perdue will need to balance his hawkishness with a deft diplomatic touch.
“He’s more likely to break through the more he shows his respect for China and encourages China to show respect for the United States,” said Max Baucus, who served as U.S. ambassador to China under President Barack Obama. “He does have to show that we Americans are strong — that we’re not going to get pushed around and we’re not going to let China bully us,” Baucus added.
The U.S. and China are locked in a tariff war that is severely reducing trade between the two countries. Trump’s imposition of 145 percent tariffs on Chinese imports earlier this month prompted Beijing to retaliate with a 125 percent levy on U.S. goods. Trump has asserted that the U.S. is “actively” engaging Beijing on tariffs, followed by a swift denial by Chinese authorities. Beijing has instead launched an international charm campaign to coax other countries to align with China in defying the tariffs.
