Editor’s note for Wednesday, December 9, 2020

My thoughts today:

Pete Buttigieg — ambassador to China? Former U.S. presidential candidate Mayor Pete may be on his way to Beijing as “president-elect Joe Biden is considering a high-profile ambassadorship” for him, according to sources cited by Axios.

Meanwhile Politico reports that Biden “will nominate House Ways and Means Committee trade lawyer Katherine Tai as U.S. trade representative” responsible for “fulfilling his campaign pledge to stay tough on China.” Tai is a “fluent Mandarin speaker who was a top USTR lawyer on China issues between 2007 and 2014, litigating Washington’s disputes against China at the World Trade Organization,” per the Wall Street Journal.

There is nothing unusual about Donald Trump tweeting baseless stories about election fraud, but today, the Twitter account of the Chinese Embassy retweeted one of them (since deleted). New York Times reporter Ed Wong had this to say (with a screenshot of the retweet):

This is notable — and a key marker for those who say Trump’s actions help China: The Chinese embassy in the U.S. has retweeted Trump’s fake claim of election fraud. For autocrats, Trump is helping delegitimize democracy and eroding U.S. standing. Putin has repeated his arguments, too.

Upcoming event: On December 10, join The China Project for a webinar featuring former resident of the Gobi Desert and head of PAG Private Equity, Weijian Shan. He will discuss his new book, Money Games: The Inside Story of How American Dealmakers Saved Korea’s Most Iconic Bank, as well as current market outlooks.

Our word of the day is New Zealand (新西兰 xīn xī lán, also called 紐西蘭 niǔ xī lán), or  Aotearoa (奥特亚罗瓦 ào tè yà luó wǎ).

—Jeremy Goldkorn, Editor-in-Chief