Russ Feingold: “I rise to honor one of our former colleagues, Jim Sasser, who today completes his term as United States Ambassador to…”

“I rise to honor one of our former colleagues, Jim Sasser, who today completes his term as United States Ambassador to China. I was honored to serve with Jim Sasser during my first two years as a member of this body. He served the people of Tennessee with distinction. As a member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, I was pleased to support his nomination to be our Ambassador to China both in Committee and on the Senate floor. Although I have serious concerns about United States policy toward China, I believe that Ambassador Sasser served this country admirably during a period of immense strain in the complex relationship between the two countries. In particular, he displayed enormous poise and courage in the days that followed the unfortunate, tragic, and accidental bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade. For more than four days, Ambassador Sasser and numerous staff members were literally trapped inside the United States embassy in Beijing as thousands of demonstrators chanted anti-American slogans and threw rocks at the embassy from the streets outside. I commend him for the calm and diplomatic manner in which he dealt with this tense situation.”