A Good Ambassador is Hard to Find

Still no U.S. Ambassador to China. So far, the two candidates (that we know of) that have been asked have said no. (Andy Wong - Pool/Getty Images)

President of the Center for American Progress John Podesta has said no. So has former U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel. Apparently getting someone to be the face of the United States to Beijing is harder than it looks.

Sources have told Foreign Policy Magazine that "some people think ambassador jobs are beneath them... Others think the process to get confirmed is too big a pain in the ass. Some people don't want to move to China."

Podesta (left) and Hagel (right) have both said no to replacing former Ambassador to China Clark Randt Jr. (center). (Getty Images/Ethan Miller/Junko Kimura/Stephen Jaffe/AFP)

Podesta served as White House Chief of Staff under Bill Clinton and was co-chair of the Obama Transition Team while Hagel, a former Republican U.S. Senator from Nebraska now serves as the Chair of the Atlantic Council of the United States, a non-profit that promotes NATO.

The position is vacant after Clark Randt, who served as ambassador to China from 2001-2009, resigned the post after the end of the Bush administration. Randt was the longest-serving U.S. ambassador to China. Prior to that, he was a partner in a Hong Kong law firm, heading up the firm's China practice.

Foreign Policy Magazine's blog has said that other rumored candidates include:

* Bill Owens: former president of a defense contractor, a retired admiral, and former vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Clinton.

* Jim Leach: Former Republican U.S. Representative from Iowa, former director of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government's Institute of Politics. Possible nominee for USAID administrator.

* Ken Lieberthal: University of Michigan professor, former adviser to Hillary Clinton on Asia during her presidential bid, former NSC senior director for Asia.

* Laura D'Andrea Tyson: Former Council of Economic Advisors chair

* Susan Shirk: Former deputy assistant secretary of state on East Asia during the first Clinton administration.

* Wendy Sherman: Former State Department counselor and Asia expert.