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Nicholas Burns
US Ambassador to the People’s Republic of ChinaNicholas Burns is Ambassador of the United States of America to the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Nominated by President Biden, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in December 2021.
As Ambassador, he leads a team of experienced, dedicated, and diverse public servants from forty-seven U.S. government agencies and sub-agencies at the U.S. Mission in China, including at the Embassy in Beijing and at the American Consulates in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, and Shenyang. He oversees the Mission’s interaction with the PRC on the full range of political, security, economic, commercial, consular, and many other issues that shape this critical relationship.
Ambassador Burns is on a public service leave from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government where he was Goodman Professor of the Practice of Diplomacy and International Relations until 2021 and founded the school’s Future of Diplomacy Project.
He has had a long career in American diplomacy serving six Presidents and nine Secretaries of State. Most recently, he was a member of the Foreign Policy Advisory Board of Secretary of State John Kerry (2014-2017).
He first visited China in 1988 accompanying Secretary of State George Shultz and then President George H.W. Bush in 1989. He subsequently made visits to China with Secretaries Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright as Spokesperson, including during the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the PRC in 1997.
As Under Secretary of State, he worked with the PRC government on a diverse range of issues, including Afghanistan, North Korea, United Nations sanctions against Iran and U.S. policy in the Indo-Pacific. As a private citizen, he also created and managed an Aspen Strategy Group policy dialogue with the PRC government’s Central Party School.
Ambassador Burns has received fifteen honorary degrees, the Presidential Distinguished Service Award and the Secretary of State’s Distinguished Service Award. He is the recipient of many other awards, including from the governments of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Kosovo.
Burns is a graduate of Boston College (BA History 1978) and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (MA International Relations 1980).
He is a proud New Englander and passionate supporter of the Red Sox, Celtics, Patriots, Bruins, and Revolution.
He is married to Elizabeth Baylies. They have three daughters and two grandchildren.