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David Rank, Charge d'Affaires of the US Embassy in China, has stepped down from his post in Beijing, a US State Department official confirmed to Xinhua on Monday.
The resignation of the top career diplomat at the US embassy in China was reportedly a response to US President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement on climate change.
"Mr. Rank made a personal decision. We appreciate his years of dedicated service to the State Department," the State Department official told Xinhua.
According to the official website of US Embassy & Consulates in China, Rank joined the State Department in 1990, and had also served as the Director of the State Department's Office of Afghanistan Affairs and as a Senior Advisor to the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
From 2011 to 2012, Rank was the Political Counselor at the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan.
Trump announced on Thursday that he had decided to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement, a landmark global pact to fight climate change.
Trump's decision to withdraw from the Paris Agreement fulfilled a campaign promise, but was soon met with widespread discord both at home and abroad.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
