Trump appoints former Sen. David Perdue to be ambassador to China

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday announced that he picked former Sen. David Perdue to serve as U.S. ambassador to China.

In a statement, Mr. Trump said the Georgia Republican will bring “valuable expertise to help build our relationship with China.”

“He will be instrumental in implementing my strategy to maintain Peace in the region, and a productive working relationship with China’s leaders,” Mr. Trump said in a statement.

Mr. Trump has said he will impose an additional 10% tariff on Chinese goods unless Beijing does more to stop the trafficking of the deadly narcotic fentanyl. On the campaign trail, Mr. Trump threatened tariffs in excess of 60% on Chinese goods.

During Mr. Perdue’s time in the U.S. Senate, he served on the Armed Services Committee and the Foreign Relations Committee, the only Republican serving at the time on both panels.

Before his career in politics, Mr. Perdue worked in Singapore and Hong Kong as a top executive with Sara Lee and in Europe with shoemaker Reebok, where he eventually became the CEO. He also ran the Dollar General chain of family discount stores.

While at Dollar General, he pushed for the chain store’s aggressive expansion into China and while working at Sara Lee he used Hong Kong as a base to build an Asian operation from the “ground up.”

Mr. Perdue is the third Georgia Republican who ran for Senate in 2020 to earn a key position in Mr. Trump’s administration. Mr. Trump this week tapped former Sen. Kelly Loeffler to run the Small Business Administration and last month picked former Rep. Doug Collins to head the Veterans Affairs Department.

While in the Senate, Mr. Perdue was an outspoken Trump loyalist. After his defeat to Democrat Jon Ossof in a 2021 runoff, he waged a doomed primary challenge against Gov. Brian Kemp, also a Republican, at Mr. Trump’s behest.

Mr. Perdue lost handily in the primary, being defeated by more than 50 percentage points.

During the primary, Mr. Kemp dubbed Mr. Perdue “Beijing Dave” for shifting manufacturing jobs overseas.