USA: The US State Department announced on Friday that Wendy Sherman, the deputy secretary of state, would be retiring. Washington's current strategy towards China and the larger Asia-Pacific region, where it seeks to challenge Beijing on several fronts, was heavily influenced by the 73-year-old official.
In a statement announcing Sherman's resignation, Secretary of State Antony Blinken praised her extensive career as a diplomat and said that she had "helped lead our engagement in the Indo-Pacific, the region where the history of the 21st century will be written."
She has strengthened our ties with all of our friends around the world, particularly with the European Union, Japan, and the Republic of Korea. She has been in charge of our initiatives to improve the [State] Department's capacity to manage our relationship with the People's Republic of China and has helped us forge closer ties with partners and allies, he continued.
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Sherman warned colleagues in a memo distributed internally to department employees that "diplomacy is not for the faint of heart," pleading with them to "have courage" and "use their power for good." She stated that as of the end of the following month, she would be retiring.
Sherman's career has spanned more than three decades, several presidents, and five different secretaries of state. Throughout the years, he has been involved in a significant number of key foreign policy decisions. She has served as Blinken's deputy and has primarily focused on China, frequently serving as an official spokesperson to outline US policy towards the People's Republic.
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In remarks to lawmakers earlier this year, Sherman warned that China is "the only competitor with the intent and means to reshape the international order," accusing Beijing of "provocations in the South China Sea," "economic coercion," and "threatening behaviour against Taiwan," which China considers to be a part of its sovereign territory.
The US and China have experienced new lows in their relations ever since President Joe Biden took office in 2021. A visit to Taipei by Nancy Pelosi, the then-House Speaker, in 2022 sparked unprecedented Chinese military drills in the airspace and waters surrounding the island.
The Pentagon has ordered nearly constant transits of the disputed Taiwan Strait by US warships. Following a trip to the US by Taiwan's leader earlier this year, it conducted additional war exercises.
Sherman is getting ready to leave the State Department permanently, but it seems like relations with China are beginning to improve again. The highest-level interaction between the two countries since Biden's meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, last November took place earlier this week during a round of unannounced negotiations between White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and a senior representative of the Chinese Foreign Ministry.