Report: Former Acting Ambassador To China Resigned Over Paris Accord Exit

Cars and pedestrians pass by the building of the Embassy of the United States in China, on the rooftop of which a mysterious white facility is seen, in Beijing, China, 4 November 2013. The surveillance of foreign go... Cars and pedestrians pass by the building of the Embassy of the United States in China, on the rooftop of which a mysterious white facility is seen, in Beijing, China, 4 November 2013. The surveillance of foreign governments and leaders conducted by the American CIA and National Security Agency (NSA) may be conducted through a mysterious white box that has been photographed affixed to US embassies and consulates around the world, according to an Israeli intelligence analyst. Citing a classified NSA document, German magazine Der Spiegel revealed that the CIA and NSA operate a black budget program known as the Special Collection Service (SCS), which is responsible for inserting surveillance equipment in foreign embassies, communications centers and other foreign government installations. The SCS teams are said to work predominantly undercover in shielded areas of the American embassy and consulate where they are granted certain immunities as foreign diplomats. American political website The Blaze reported on October 30 that the SCS spying activities could very well be conducted through a mysterious box-shaped structure which has been photographed on rooftops of US embassies in Madrid, Moscow, Beijing, Berlin and Stockholm. MORE LESS

June 5, 2017 6:05 p.m.

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CNN reported Monday that the one-time acting United States ambassador to China resigned from the State Department over President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change, according to unnamed sources familiar with the decision.

Earlier Monday, SupChina editor-at-large John Pomfret wrote on Twitter that unnamed sources had said the official who resigned, David Rank, did so because he “couldn’t back Trump on climate.”

David Rank, no.2 @USEmbassyBJ, has resigned, sources say. He couldn't back Trump on climate. Rank had 27yr career including @USEmbassyKabul

— John Pomfret 潘文 (@JEPomfret) June 5, 2017

Rank called a town hall meeting @USEmbassyBJ to say he could not deliver a demarche to the PRC govt over US withdrawal from @ParisAgreement https://t.co/mgkzns0YGm

— John Pomfret 潘文 (@JEPomfret) June 5, 2017

Trump’s nominee for the ambassadorship, Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad, was sworn in as ambassador on May 24. The Senate confirmed him for the position on May 22.

Rank was a career foreign service officer who in January 2016 became deputy chief of mission at the U.S. embassy in Beijing, CNN reported.

“Mr. Rank made a personal decision,” an unnamed senior State Department official told the network. “We appreciate his years of dedicated service to the State Department.”

CNN noted the official did not name Trump’s Paris accord withdrawal as the explicit motivation for Rank’s resignation, but the network cited “several” unnamed “sources familiar with the decision,” who indicated, in CNN’s words, that the “departure is directly tied to Trump’s controversial move to pull out of the accord.”

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Matt Shuham (@mattshuham) is a reporter in TPM’s New York office. Prior to joining TPM, he was associate editor of The National Memo and an editorial intern at Rolling Stone.

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