Chinese ambassador Qin Gang. Photo: Liu Jie/Xinhua via Getty Images
China on Friday named Qin Gang, its ambassador to the United States, as its new foreign minister.
The big picture: The appointment of Qin, widely considered a trusted aide of President Xi Jinping, comes as Beijing appears to be softening its tone and offering some concessions to the international community, Axios' Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian reports.
- Having served as Xi's chief protocol officer between 2014 and 2018, Qin quickly climbed the ranks of China's Foreign Ministry.
- Qin will replace Wang Yi, who has served as foreign minister for the past decade. Wang, who was selected for the Communist Party's Politburo in October, is expected to become Xi's top foreign policy aide.
What they’re saying: In a recent op-ed for The National Interest, Qin stressed that “China-U.S. relations should not be a zero-sum game where one side out-competes the other or thrives at the expense of the other. China and the United States now share more common interests, not less."