US-China Relations Updates

Amidst tensions between Washington and Beijing, the top Chinese policy official at the US State Department, Rick Waters, will step down. Reports suggest the State Department is in the process of selecting Waters’ successor. Several officials responsible for Chinese policy and US-China relations have announced personnel changes in recent times.

According to a State Department spokesperson, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Waters, responsible for Chinese and Taiwanese affairs, will leave on June 23 but will continue to serve as a senior diplomat. It is reported that Waters announced his intention to resign at a work meeting earlier yesterday.

“We appreciate his outstanding service on China and Taiwan issues over the past two years, including his establishment of the China Office and leadership of the Taiwan Coordination Office,” said the State Department spokesperson in a statement.

Reuters reported two weeks ago that the State Department postponed human rights-related sanctions, export controls, and other sensitive actions after a purported Chinese spy balloon crossed the US in February, in an attempt to limit damage to US-China relations. The report cited an email sent by Deputy Secretary of State Waters to staff, which conveyed instructions to postpone some actions, citing the need for the State Department to focus on a “symmetric and calibrated response” to the balloon.

Many analysts believe that relations between the world’s two largest economies are at their worst in decades, as these two strategic rivals clash on a range of issues from Taiwan to trade.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Daniel J.Kritenbrink, who is responsible for the region, said, “The China Office has been strengthening the State Department’s work to advance a free and open Indo-Pacific and to compete with China. He praised Waters, saying, “Few people in the US government know more about China than Waters, and establishing the China Office under his leadership will be a lasting achievement. Rick is a strategic thinker who has skillfully advanced US policy towards China.”

The Biden administration has been seeking high-level talks with China to prevent the relationship between the two countries from escalating into conflict, particularly after the balloon incident caused a diplomatic crisis. Following the balloon incident, Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed his planned visit to China in February, but the White House said it was still working to facilitate visits by Blinken, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

Since its establishment in December last year, Waters has led the China Affairs Office, formally known as the China Coordination Office, which is a restructuring of the State Department’s China Affairs Bureau to strengthen policy. He has served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for about two years.

Critics of the Biden administration have questioned the US’s overtures to China, arguing that decades of engagement policies have failed to influence China’s stance on a range of trade, security, and human rights issues.

Republican Representative Mike McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, cited Reuters’ report in a letter to Blinken on May 19, demanding information related to US actions against China. “If the US is to succeed in strategic competition with China, it must resolutely hold China accountable for its aggression and malfeasance, and do so in an organized and effective manner,” McCaul wrote. He is also one of the few senators sanctioned by the Chinese Government.

Recent personnel changes in the Biden administration have been focused on China-related issues. Wendy Sherman, the US Deputy Secretary of State, who pushed most of the State Department’s work on China, announced her retirement on May 12.

Laura Rosenberger, a former senior China official at the Biden administration’s National Security Council, stepped down earlier this year and is expected to lead a US government-operated nonprofit organization responsible for managing unofficial relations with Taiwan.