Top U.S. diplomat in China quits over Trump climate policy

[webfact]

Top U.S. diplomat in China quits over Trump climate policy

By David Brunnstrom and John Walcott

REUTERS

 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - David Rank, the chargé d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, has left the State Department over the Trump administration's decision to quit the 2015 Paris agreement to fight climate change, a senior U.S. official said on Monday.

 

A State Department spokeswoman confirmed Rank's departure, but said she was unable to verify Twitter posts that said he resigned as he felt unable to deliver a formal notification to China of the U.S. decision last week to quit the agreement.

 

"He has retired from the foreign service," said Anna Richey-Allen, a spokeswoman for the department's East Asia Bureau. "Mr Rank has made a personal decision. We appreciate his years of dedicated service to the State Department."

 

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, President Donald Trump's pick as the next U.S. ambassador to Beijing, is expected to take up the post later this month.

 

A tweet from China expert John Pomfret quoted unnamed sources as saying that Rank had resigned as he could not support Trump's decision last week to withdraw from the Paris agreement.

 

Another tweet from Pomfret said Rank called a town hall meeting to announce his decision to embassy staff and explained that he could not deliver a diplomatic note informing the Chinese government of the U.S. decision.

 

A senior U.S. official confirmed the account given in the tweets but added that after Rank announced his intention to retire on Monday in Beijing, he was told by the State Department to leave his post immediately. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

 

On June 1, the U.S. State Department accepted the resignation of its top personnel officer, who had been among its few remaining senior Obama administration political appointees, another U.S. official said.

 

Arnold Chacon had served as the director general of the foreign service and director of human resources.

 

The official said Chacon had tendered his resignation when Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, along with all presidential appointees, who serve at the pleasure of the president and secretary of state.

 

The acceptance of Chacon's resignation was first reported by the DiploPundit website.

 

It was not immediately clear whether he would be offered another post at the department.

 

Other than Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, his deputy John Sullivan and Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Tom Shannon, the third-ranking U.S. diplomat, most of the State Department's senior posts are currently vacant or filled by acting officials.

 

Chacon and Rank, a career foreign service officer who took over the post of deputy chief of mission in Beijing in January 2016, could not immediately be reached for comment.

 

Jonathan Fritz, the embassy's economics councillor, would serve as chargé in his place, Richey-Allen said.

 

Rank had been with the department for 27 years and served as the political councillor at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2012.

 

Trump's announcement on Thursday that he would withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, saying the agreement would undermine the U.S. economy and cost jobs, drew anger and condemnation from world leaders and heads of industry.

 

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom and John Walcott, additional reporting by Jonathan Landay and Arshad Mohammed, editing by G Crosse and Cynthia Osterman)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2017-06-06

[tomwct]

Good Riddence to him! Thank God he retired!

[Jingthing]

Resisting an ignorant tyrant is righteous! 

[darksidedog]

And so a man with integrity decides to leave his position as he feels unable to work for a man who has none. Well done David.

[ezzra]

48 minutes ago, darksidedog said:

And so a man with integrity decides to leave his position as he feels unable to work for a man who has none. Well done David.

 

I'll take a wild stab in the dark here and say the ' integrity ' is not the strongest suit of most diplomats serving any country, personal and party agendas, self serving whims and wishes, career moves and MONEY, yeah money, is the what behind

many sudden bout of ' integrity '.....

 

[ilostmypassword]

38 minutes ago, ezzra said:

 

I'll take a wild stab in the dark here and say the ' integrity ' is not the strongest suit of most diplomats serving any country, personal and party agendas, self serving whims and wishes, career moves and MONEY, yeah money, is the what behind many sudden bout of ' integrity '.....

 

I agree with you. It is a wild stab. Which is not surprising considering that your comment was berserk.

[DoctorG]

"muh feelings". Harden up buttercup.

[Scott]

An inflammatory, baiting post removed along with reply.  

[kamahele]

2 hours ago, tomwct said:

Good Riddence to him! Thank God he retired!

Why? He served his country for 27 years and apparently quit because he couldn't stomach something he was asked to do. Sounds like integrity to me even if you would disagree.

[Stargeezr]

I guess this Diplomat did not like the fact that China will not have to do anything until 2030. This is part of the Paris agreement that is just so wrong, and unfair.

[YetAnother]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

most of the State Department's senior posts are currently vacant or filled by acting officials.

what ?! well at least it isnt rampant nepotism

[ilostmypassword]

1 hour ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

I guess this Diplomat did not like the fact that China will not have to do anything until 2030. This is part of the Paris agreement that is just so wrong, and unfair.

Are you trying to be as wrong as you can be? If so, I think you have succeeded.

 

India will be getting 40 percent of its energy from renewable sources 8 years ahead of schedule. It has already cancelled megaproject coal plants.

http://climateactiontracker.org/countries/india.html

 

And it looks like China's CO2 emissions have peaked a mere 10 years ahead of schedule.

http://climateactiontracker.org/countries/china.html

[maewang99]

how much you wanna bet this guy's real story has absolutely nothing to do with COP21.... unless he's a nutter? 

but this kind of stuff... just like Leonardo DiCaprio and Harrison Ford with their Fires in Indonesia stories and Ice Slowly Melting in Greenland.. gives fodder for the rants against Climate science.... and that's how this stuff actually does work.

Trump knows Co2 is a problem.  but the government is not the solution to it... Paris was a fraud and that really is James Hansen's description of it. and U Manchester's Kevin Anderson etc etc.

Edited June 6, 2017 by maewang99

[ilostmypassword]

1 minute ago, maewang99 said:

thanks.

for making Climate seem like nonsense.  how much you wanna this guy's story has absolutely nothing to do with COP21.... unless he's a nutter. 

but this kind of stuff... just like Leonardo DiCaprio and Harrison Ford with their Fires in Indonesia stories and Ice Slowly Melting in Greenland.. gives fodder for the rants against Paris.... that's how this stuff act6ually works.     

Trump knows Co2 is a problem.  but the government is not the solution to it... but he won't get in the way... and he might even come up with something a lot better than the fraud (James Hansen's description.... James Hansen) that Paris 2015 was.

   

And yet the governments of India and China are doing something about it with dramatic results.

And as for Trump knowing CO2 is a problem...

http://www.snopes.com/donald-trump-global-warming-hoax/

[Srikcir]

12 hours ago, webfact said:

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad, President Donald Trump's pick as the next U.S. ambassador to Beijing

Branstad believes that climate change is happening but has expressed hesitation on acting. “We need to recognize this climate change issue is a global issue,”

https://thinkprogress.org/the-climate-guide-to-governors-a822a998a94a

He'll be more than happy to inform the Chinese of Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement. But he will lose creditibility from the Chinese that the US understands the man-made threat to global climate. 

[anon4546543]

8 hours ago, YetAnother said:

what ?! well at least it isnt rampant nepotism

It soon will be

[Trouble]

He had his 27 years in and probably the safety net of his retirement pension.  Bet he would not have done that if he wasn't walking out with his pension.  He was probably close to retirement anyway so a lot easier to take a stand on something.

 

[anon4546543]

13 minutes ago, Trouble said:

He had his 27 years in and probably the safety net of his retirement pension.  Bet he would not have done that if he wasn't walking out with his pension.  He was probably close to retirement anyway so a lot easier to take a stand on something.

 

Ah, the comments of new age people that will replace this poor old body. 

This guy had style. He also had a message and if you stop and listen instead of doing the ostrich on science, you may help to save your planet. Of course you also need to act,

not something that complacent new age young folk seem capable of.

[boomerangutang]

14 hours ago, darksidedog said:

And so a man with integrity decides to leave his position as he feels unable to work for a man who has none. Well done David.

Allow me to expand on one word in your above note.  Instead of '.....a man with integrity.....'   I'd re-word it to read, ''.....another man with integrity.....''

 

Last week, a longtime employee of the CIA quit for moral reasons, saying essentially that he could not follow directives given by such a flawed anti-American (my words, not his).    Many good career Fed.Gov't folks are leaving.   It's a similar sentiment as to why Trump can't find candidates to fill many vacancies.  Essentially everyone he's asked to be FBI director has turned him down.  Who would want a job which required that person to kiss his boss's butt, under fear of getting publicly humiliated if he didn't.  Well, maybe Christie, Newt, Giuliani, or some other of Trump's ass-kissers would take it, because they're lips are ready for the job.

 

11 hours ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

I guess this Diplomat did not like the fact that China will not have to do anything until 2030. This is part of the Paris agreement that is just so wrong, and unfair.

China is doing more than any other country.  Paris Accord is voluntary, not binding.  Trump didn't know that.   Trump also doesn't know that being at the vanguard of alt.energy is great for job creation.   Trump is poised to kill job possibilities for Americans.  

 

China, among other countries, is taking the high ground and gaining face, while unfathomably ignorant Trump is pulling the US down to the sewer of world opinion.   Thanks, Trump voters.   What's next on the menu?  Making a birthday cake for your spouse - out of cow patties?

[Stargeezr]

China still has lots of coal fired Power stations, even if they are modern versions, they still have plenty.  India has more and is still building coal fired Power stations. Go take a look, I have.

  Yes they are trying to modernize in some ways, but both countries have a long way to go and neither charge their people a carbon tax. Look at the list of countries that pollute, and see where they are in the world.

  You might see what it is I am talking about.  Yes the USA pollutes and it also has vehicles that have pollutions controls on them, check California's

high standards, then go to an city in India and tell me that they have the same standards. Yeah right.

I have been to a few Chinese factories, and know why Beijing and Shanghai are so polluted some days.

  This diplomat did put in 27 years so maybe he just felt it is time to retire, and it has nothing at all to do

with Trump.

Geezer

[Srikcir]

1 hour ago, Stargrazer9889 said:

maybe he just felt it is time to retire, and it has nothing at all to do

with Trump.

No. Look at the record:

"A tweet from China expert John Pomfret quoted unnamed sources as saying that Rank had resigned as he could not support Trump's decision last week to withdraw from the Paris agreement."

"A senior U.S. official confirmed the account given in the tweets"

Rank clearly resigned because of Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement.

 

As to retirement pension being a factor, any federal employee becomes vested in a federal pension after five years of continuous service. Furthermore, the pension benefits increase with service time under the Civil Service Retirement System that encourages employees not to leave service - the so called Golden Handcuffs. Unless Rank can be reassigned to another federal position, his retirement is essentially activated. Terminating his service ends his accrual of retirement benefits. Therefore, Rank's resignation was not economically motivated but ethically motivated.

 

[mesquite]

I admire him for quitting.  I wish more deep state people would resign.

[Ramen087]

while the hypocrisy of china remains, I think this diplomat was trying to make himself feel quite important by leaving and making this statement... he's already in the rear view mirror and you really heard nothing more than a soundbite or one time story on this resignation...outside of this board (as an example only) and a few very specific sites, this barely received anything more than a small amount of attention...the foreign service will go on without a hiccup... Next!

[Srikcir]

6 minutes ago, Ramen087 said:

outside of this board (as an example only) and a few very specific sites

Many specific sites such as:

ABC News         Asian Correspondent      BBC     Aljezeera

NBC       CNN       Reuters     Bloomberg      Wall Street Journal

Chicago Tribune       New York Times

 

 

 

[Ramen087]

2 minutes ago, Srikcir said:

Many specific sites such as:

ABC News         Asian Correspondent      BBC     Aljezeera

NBC       CNN       Reuters     Bloomberg      Wall Street Journal

Chicago Tribune       New York Times

yes... a one day, one time story, no extended coverage... the diplomat is history and so is the story and effect on the foreign service