(Adnkronos) – Donald Trump has chosen David Perdue, former Senator from Georgia, as ambassador to China, with a long past as a top manager in the manufacturing and retail sectors that led him to live in Singapore and Hong Kong. “He will be crucial to my strategy of maintaining peace in the region and a productive working relationship with Chinese leaders,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, announcing the appointment of Perdue, whom he called “a friend” and “a loyal supporter.”
As CEO of Dollar General and top manager of Sara Lee and Reebok, Perdue has led significant corporate restructurings and global expansions, strongly supporting – Politico recalls – the relocation of jobs from the United States to Asia to cut production costs. Industrial practices that are in stark contrast to Trump’s America First nationalist and protectionist economic policy, which promises to resume and relaunch the tariff war with Beijing, and which have been used against him in the past in election campaigns.
Perdue’s political career was not a long one, remaining in the Senate for only one term, from 2014 to 2020, distinguishing himself by taking a stand in defense of the economic and fiscal interests of corporations. A member of the Foreign Affairs and Defense committees, Perdue supported strengthening U.S. naval power to respond to external threats and was classified as an “anti-China” American politician by a Chinese think tank in 2019. Asked for comment on Trump’s appointment, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian merely replied today that “we have taken note of the relevant news,” the Global Times reports.
There was no shortage of controversy, particularly that sparked by the fact that Perdue continued to engage in financial investments while in the Senate. So much so as to raise doubts about conflicts of interest – particularly for investments in the technology sector given that Perdue sat on the cybersecurity subcommittee – and end up in 2020 in the crosshairs of a Justice Department insider trading investigation.
The investigation ended without indictments, but perhaps it was one of the elements that led to the Republican’s defeat in the January 2021 runoff with Democrat Jon Ossoff. An election result that Perdue contested, obviously also supporting the unfounded allegations of fraud brought by Trump in a state like Georgia led by Republicans.
A loyalty that the tycoon rewarded in 2022 by supporting the former senator’s candidacy for governor, with the goal of defeating Governor Brian Kemp in the primaries, whom the then-former president wanted to punish for certifying Joe Biden’s victory and not lending himself to overturning the election results. But Perdue was soundly defeated by Kemp, a result that was interpreted as a limit on the political clout Trump then seemed to wield even within the party.
