By
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - President Bush is expected to name Clark Randt Jr., a lawyer and businessman based in Hong Kong, as the next U.S. ambassador to China.
Randt was a classmate of Bush at Yale. He would succeed Joseph W. Prueher, a retired Navy admiral, who was named to the post by former President Bill Clinton in 1999 after a long search.
Prueher played a leading role in negotiations that led to the release of the American crew of the U.S. surveillance plane that collided with a Chinese fighter jet and landed in southern China April 1 and is the focus of negotiations due to open today in Beijing.
Prueher, who was praised by the White House for his diplomatic efforts, reportedly was interested in remaining in the post. He was not named to the Pentagon-led U.S. delegation to the Beijing talks, and a well-placed U.S. official said yesterday Bush intended to name Randt as the next ambassador.
Prueher succeeded former Sen. James Sasser, D-Tenn., in Beijing after Clinton approached several potential nominees who turned him down. They were said to include Anthony Lake, the president's former national security assistant; former Rep. Lee Hamilton, D-Ind., and former Sens. Dale Bumpers and David Pryor of Arkansas.
Then, as now, U.S. relations with China were at a low ebb over allegations of Chinese espionage, a widening trade gap and human rights problems. Conservatives in the Senate were primed to turn the nomination hearing into a heated debate on Clinton's diplomatic overtures to Beijing.
As it turned out, Prueher was enthusiastically supported by most Republicans, including Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
He retired from the Navy in May 1999, after a 39-year career, including serving as commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific. He held that post in early 1996 when Clinton sent U.S. warships into the Taiwan Strait after provocative Chinese missile firings during Taiwan's election campaigns.
That portion of his resume provoked some initial reservations among Chinese leaders still angry over the U.S. bombing of their embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, on May 7, 1999. But it may have helped him with Senate hard-liners like Helms.
Bush, in his presidential campaign, accused Clinton of coddling China, and since taking office has spoken of China as a strategic rival.
