Susan Thornton
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Susan Ashton Thornton is a former American diplomat and former acting
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs The Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs is the head of the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs within the United States Department of State. The assistant secretary guides operation of the U.S. diplomatic estab ...
.


Biography

Prior to working at the State Department, Thornton worked at the
Foreign Policy Institute The Foreign Policy Institute ( tr, Dış Politika Enstitüsü or ''DPE'') is a Turkish think tank on foreign policy and international relations. It was founded in 1974. The Foreign Policy Institute is the first ever Think Tank formed in Turkey ...
where she studied and wrote about Soviet politics and contemporary
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
. She speaks
Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
and
Mandarin Chinese Mandarin (; ) is a group of Chinese (Sinitic) dialects that are natively spoken across most of northern and southwestern China. The group includes the Beijing dialect, the basis of the phonology of Standard Chinese, the official language ...
. Thornton is a
career diplomat A diplomat (from grc, δίπλωμα; romanized ''diploma'') is a person appointed by a state or an intergovernmental institution such as the United Nations or the European Union to conduct diplomacy with one or more other states or internatio ...
who has worked at the State Department since 1991. She has previously served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for the
Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs In the United States Government, the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs (EAP, originally the Office of Chinese Affairs) is part of the United States Department of State and is charged with advising the Secretary of State and Under Secre ...
(EAP) since February 2016 and before that, she worked as the Deputy Chief of Mission to the United States Embassy in
Ashgabat Ashgabat or Asgabat ( tk, Aşgabat, ; fa, عشق‌آباد, translit='Ešqābād, formerly named Poltoratsk ( rus, Полтора́цк, p=pəltɐˈratsk) between 1919 and 1927), is the capital and the largest city of Turkmenistan. It lie ...
,
Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...
, Deputy Director of the EAP Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs, Economic Unit Chief in the EAP Office of Korean Affairs. Before that she served as First Secretary at the Embassy in Beijing, China, Political/Economic Section Chief at the Consulate General in Chengdu, China, along with other overseas assignment at the Embassy in Yerevan, Armenia and Consulate General in Almaty,
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
. She was appointed as acting Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian Affairs on March 9, 2017, and on December 24, she was nominated as the Assistant Secretary of State by President Trump. Susan Thornton retired in August 2018 after then-Secretary of State
Rex Tillerson Rex Wayne Tillerson (born March 23, 1952) is an American engineer and energy executive who served as the 69th U.S. secretary of state from February 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018, under President Donald Trump. Prior to joining the Trump administ ...
stepped down. She was never confirmed by the U.S. Senate due to being considered "too soft on China." In particular, US Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) stated that he would do all he can to prevent Susan Thornton from being confirmed.


Publications


Articles

* On Hong Kong, the United States Must Find Its Voice, '' Lawfare'', August 2, 2019 (co-authored with Ryan Hass)


References


External links


Susan Thornton State Department Biography
American women ambassadors United States Assistant Secretaries of State Living people United States Foreign Service personnel Bowdoin College alumni Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies alumni Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women American diplomats American women diplomats {{US-diplomat-stub