Obama's New Intel Czar is China Expert

Admiral Dennis Blair in 2000. (Photo by Robert Patterson/Getty Images)

China doves are likely delighting in the selection of retired Admiral Dennis Blair, as Barack Obama's director of national intelligence. Blair served as chief of the U.S. Pacific Command from 1999-2002, and is considered a China expert.

If confirmed, Blair would be the third director of national intelligence -- the position was created by Congress in 2004 following September 11 investigations that showed that failure of information sharing among the U.S. intelligence community could have prevented the attacks.

Blair's views on greater engagement with China apparently did not sit well with then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was considering him for the position of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff back in 2001.

Blair had been outspoken publicly about greater diplomacy with China. He had also privately criticized Taiwan for pushing too much for independence when it already has de facto independence.

Journalist Andrew Cockburn had this to say about Rumsfeld's views of Blair in his 2007 book Rumsfeld:

"Admiral Dennis Blair, commander of the Pacific Fleet, was deemed a rising star by his peers, a strong candidate for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But he did not share the new official orthodoxy that China was emerging as a threat, and said so in public. Blair's service career promptly withered and he retired soon after. Rumsfeld took an especial delight in disturbing the delicate minuet of service politics."

But lest anyone label Blair a panda-hugger, consider that he once reportedly told Chinese officials: "I'm not worried about you taking Taiwan because, even if you get across the straits, you can't maintain it, you can't protect it."

And remember the U.S. spy plane incident back in 2001? That's when a U.S. spy plane collided with a Chinese navy fighter jet resulting in the death of the Chinese pilot and the emergency landing of the U.S. crew on Chinese soil. Remember the jockeying over what an official 'I'm sorry' from the United States to China meant?

At the time of the incident, Blair was quoted as blaming the Chinese plane for the collision and criticizing its "aggressive" tactics, despite the fact that China claimed it was the U.S. plane that hit the Chinese jet. Blair told the BBC: "It's not a normal practice to play bumper cars in the air."

Following his military retirement, Blair served as president of the Institute for Defense Analyses from 2003-2006. He stepped down after a Pentagon Inspector's General report found that he had a conflict of interest by serving on the board and owning stock in a military contractor that worked on the F-22 jet while the IDA was also evaluating the program for the Pentagon. However the Inspector General said that his conflict did not influence the IDA analysis of the program.

In 2007, Blair was named to the first John M. Shalikashvili Chair in National Security Studies for the National Bureau of Asian Research where he advised the non-profit's Strategic Asia program, conducted research, and briefed senior policymakers.

Learn more about Blair in his own words: