Today, at 5pm, CAS will host Dave Rank, former US diplomat to China, for a talk "U.S.-China Relations in the Era of Xi Jinping"
Rank, who served as a diplomat for 17 years, resigned from the foreign service in 2017. At the time, he wrote an op-ed in the Washingtom Post explaining his decision. In the article he writes:
This month, I resigned from the State Department’s Foreign Service, stepping down as the senior U.S. diplomat in China and ending a 27-year career. I served five presidents — three Republicans and two Democrats — and, like my colleagues throughout the Foreign Service, took pride in the tradition of loyal, nonpartisan service. I also took seriously my oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and the obligations that came with representing the American people.
When the administration decided to withdraw from the Paris agreement on climate change, however, I concluded that, as a parent, patriot and Christian, I could not in good conscience be involved in any way, no matter how small, with the implementation of that decision.