The Senate confirmed former Georgia Sen. David Perdue as the new U.S. ambassador to China on Tuesday.
Perdue received 67 Senate votes in support of his confirmation, while 29 lawmakers voted against him.
His confirmation — which had been widely expected — will put him 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 hasn’t said when he expects to take up his position in Beijing. But once there, he will be Trump’s Beijing-based envoy tasked to navigate a relationship fractured by a tit-for-tat tariff war, China’s ongoing military intimidation of Taiwan and the Philippines as well as Beijing’s role in the U.S. opioid overdose epidemic.
