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Biden Administration International Affairs Personnel Tracker
Linda Thomas-Greenfield
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations
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Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield served as a career diplomat for 35 years in the U.S. Department of State, culminating with her appointment from 2013 to 2017 as Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of African Affairs, where she led the bureau focused on the development and management of U.S. policy toward sub-Saharan Africa. Following her departure from public service in 2017, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield led the Africa Practice at Albright Stonebridge Group, a strategic commercial diplomacy firm chaired by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
Under the Trump Administration, the position of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations was downgraded from its original status as a Cabinet level role. However, the Biden administration has decided to bring this role back to its former Cabinet level prominence. As such, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield can be expected to play a greater role in helping to shape and implement U.S. foreign policy at a higher capacity.
Views On China
Although Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield is an Africa specialist, she will now regularly interact with her Chinese counterparts while representing the U.S. at the United Nations. When asked about China’s role on the African continent, she responded “The United States is not the only player in Africa. We also want to encourage other countries to invest…. Africa is a huge continent. There’s room for everyone to work there, and there are opportunities for all.”
In a Foreign Affairs article, co-authored by William Burr, who was nominated as Director of the CIA, China is referred to several times as a geopolitical competitor and that America must rise to meet this challenge.
Most Recent Actions
- On August 9, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a statement by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, which recognized the 1982 Convention on Law of Sea (UNCLOS) for the first time in the body’s history. The vote is notable for its support from P-5 officials like Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield (and Secretary of State Blinken who was also in attendance) as well as the acquiescence of her Chinese counterpart.
- On October 4, Thomas-Greenfield delivered a speech to the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee (SOCHUM) where she stated that:
In China, the PRC is trying to divert attention from the genocide and crimes against humanity occurring in Xinjiang. We will not keep silent while over one million Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups are detained in internment camps. We also condemn extreme restrictions on human rights and on the long-held religious, linguistic, and cultural traditions in Tibet and call for the immediate release of democratic activists by authorities in Hong Kong.
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In Her Own Words
- On September 17, Thomas-Greenfield participated in a press conference prior to the 76th meeting of the UN General Assembly. She was asked about when and how the U.S. intends to work with China, and responded:
Being on the Security Council and in the P5 with the Chinese, we have regular engagements with them, almost on a daily basis, and the Chinese PR and I have regular bilateral discussions on a range of issues. Our relationship is complex, and it goes without saying that there are tensions, but there are areas where we are able to cooperate. And we look to work on those areas, such as on climate change and encouraging the Chinese to up their commitments on emissions, and in working together with them sometimes on more difficult issues, but occasionally coming to some kind of agreement.
In Her Own Words
- On August 11, 2021, Ambassdor Thomas-Greenfield briefed the Department of State’s Asia Pacific Regional Media Hub and was asked Wendy Sherman’s recent visit to China and the potential for U.S.-China cooperation in areas such as climate change. She responded with the following comments:
In terms of the Deputy Secretary’s recent visit to China, we’re ready to work with Beijing when it’s in America’s interest to do so. And we still compete from a position, and we will always compete from a position of strength by building back better at home and working with our allies and our partners, particularly in the region, and renewing our role in international institutions like the United Nations.
And I think you may have heard Secretary Blinken say that the U.S. relationship with China will be collaborative where it can be, and competitive where it should, and be adversarial where it must be. We need to be able to have a relationship where we can discuss potential areas of competition like climate change and areas where we disagree.
As it relates to the climate change, the world cannot successfully address the climate challenges without significant additional action by China. The United States and China will continue to discuss, both on the road to COP26 and beyond, concrete action that we both need to take to strengthen the implementation of the Paris Agreement. And this is not just important to the United States but is critical to every country in the world.
- On August 10, 2021, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield announced $55 million in COVID-19 assistance to the Thai media. She was asked if the announcement was “part of a race or some form of vaccine diplomacy?” between the U.S. and China in Southeast Asia, to which she responded saying:
Look, COVID-19 knows no borders. And in providing vaccines to other nations our objective, singularly, is to save lives. And with the full knowledge that none of us are safe until all of us are safe. We’re sharing doses not to secure favors or extract concessions. Our vaccines do not come with strings attached. Thailand is our oldest ally in Asia. And we are committed to standing with Thailand until we overcome this pandemic. We’re also proud partners of ASEAN and our engagement fosters a more stable, more prosperous peaceful and healthy region. And President Biden is committed. And he has said it over and over to helping rally the world, so that we can beat this pandemic together. So no, we’re not in competition.
Media
- On August 9, the United Nations Security Council unanimously adopted a statement by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, which recognized the 1982 Convention on Law of Sea (UNCLOS) for the first time in the body’s history. The vote is notable for its support from P-5 officials like Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield (and Secretary of State Blinken who was also in attendance) as well as the acquiescence of her Chinese counterpart.
- On August 8, 2021, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield attended the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. In an interview with NHK, she praised Japan’s successful hosting of the Games during the COVID-19 pandemic, and criticized China for its human rights abuses and efforts to block a transparent WHO investigation into the origins of the pandemic when asked about the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.
In Her Own Words
- On June 14, in an interview with Axios, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield was asked if China and Russia were obstructing the Security Council from openly discussing famine in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. She responded saying:
I wouldn’t call out China and Russia, it’s the entire Security Council. There are countries on the Council who have pushed back against holding an open meetings…They’re making a number of arguments. One, that this is a sovereignty issue. My view is sovereignty does not come into play when you have foreign troops in your country, when your people are crossing borders into other countries, and we’re watching on national TV your people starve to death. And I’ve said and I will say here, as I’ve said in the Security Council, don’t African lives matter?
In Her Own Words
- On May 18, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield addressed the Department of State’s Africa Regional Media Hub where her remarks included the following statement of Chinese activities in Africa:
I would say that it worries me as I look at Africa’s relationship with China, for example, that that is a relationship that sometimes rests on coerciveness, indebtedness, and not in partnership. And I want our message to be completely the opposite of that and our relationships to reflect that our partnership with Africa is one in which we focus on the needs of the people, we focus on our values, and we focus on opportunities to build capacity across the continent of Africa.
- On May 12, at an event on the situation in Xinjiang, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield spoke in harsh terms of the persecution of Uyghurs by the Chinese government:
In Xinjiang, people are being tortured. Women are being forcibly sterilized. There are incredible reports, and credible reports, that many Uyghur people and other ethnic and religious minorities – who only wish to practice basic freedoms of religion, belief, expression, and movement – are being forced to work until they drop, manufacturing clothes and goods at the behest of the state…
We will keep standing up and speaking out until China’s government stops its crimes against humanity and the genocide of Uyghurs and other minorities in Xinjiang. And we will keep working in concert with our allies and our partners until China’s government respects the universal human rights of all its people.
In Her Own Words
- On April 19, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield underscored the importance of UN cooperation with “regional organizations like ASEAN” which:
…play a strong role in encouraging conflict prevention, mediation, preventative diplomacy, and peacebuilding…ASEAN-led forums, including the ASEAN Regional Forum and East Asia Summit, provide a space for constructive dialogue between regional countries to discuss pressing regional and international issues, including good governance, counterterrorism, and maritime security.
In Her Own Words
- In her remarks for the UN General Assembly Commemorative Meeting for Intl Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield openly criticized China for its treatment of its ethnic minorities:
[Racism is] deadly. Like in Burma, where Rohingya and others have been oppressed, abused, and killed in staggering numbers. Or in China, where the government has committed genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and members of other ethnic and religious minority groups in Xinjiang.
In Her Own Words
- In an official address at the UN General Assembly Informal Briefing on Burma, Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield provided the US position on the Myanmar coup:
It is time for the military to immediately relinquish power, refrain from further violence, release all those unjustly detained, and restore Myanmar’s democratically elected government. And it is time to provide unhindered humanitarian access so that life-saving humanitarian assistance reaches all the people in need.
In Her Own Words
- Biden’s pick for UN post calls China ‘a strategic adversary’
- Biden’s United Nations Ambassador Nominee Linda Thomas-Greenfield Delivers Remarks | NBC News
- In her nomination acceptance speech, the Ambassador declared that “America is back. Multilateralism is back. Diplomacy is back.” to indicate that she will work to bring the U.S. back to the table on the international stage.
Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield labeled China a strategic adversary during her Senate confirmation hearing:
China is a strategic adversary and their actions threaten our security, they threaten our values and they threaten our way of life, and they are a threat to their neighbors and they are a threat across the globe.
In the same hearing, she has invoked the narrative that China engages in debt trap diplomacy and, a notion that was popularized by ranking members of the Trump administration, such as former Secretary of State, Michael Pompeo. In this direction, Amb. Thomas Greenfield said:
I have a long track record of speaking about China’s malign force, about the debt traps and tactics that they use in Africa and elsewhere….I am not at all naive about what the Chinese are doing and I have called them out on a regular basis… I see what they’re doing at the United Nations as undermining our values. … I will be working aggressively against China.
Media
Page Last Updated: October 8, 2021
*None of the personnel in this tracker are associated with the Institute for China-America Studies. All images used on this page are sourced from the official Biden-Harris transition website buildbackbetter.gov or the public domain.*
