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Iowa Governor Terry Branstad will serve as the next US ambassador to China
� AFP/File JIM WATSON




Washington (AFP) - The US Senate on Monday confirmed Iowa Governor Terry Branstad as the next ambassador to Beijing, providing President Donald Trump with an envoy whose decades-long connection to China could smooth relations between the global powers.

The confirmation, by a bipartisan vote of 82 to 13, comes with the White subway runner House beset by scandal, but also at a time when Trump is looking to Beijing, its biggest rival and trading partner, to step up economic pressure on North Korea's irascible regime.

Branstad will be thrust into the heart of one of the most important and sensitive relationships in global diplomacy, one that faces rising tensions in the South China Sea.

The new US administration has yet to fully outline its policy with China, a nation Trump repeatedly attacked from the campaign trail last year.

But Trump's aggressive tone has softened since his inauguration, including doing an about face after months of branding China a currency manipulator.