Sasser stepped down as ambassador following the riots that occurred throughout China in the wake of the May NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade. The appointment has been delayed due to continuing sour ties between the U.S. and China that followed the bombing. Admiral Prueher, of Nashville, Tennessee, is a retired Navy admiral and former Commander in Chief of U.S. Pacific Command, from which he stepped down in February 1999. For over three years, Admiral Prueher served as the senior U.S. military commander in the Pacific and Indian Oceans, where he led the largest U.S. Unified Command, directing Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine operations. As Pacific commander, in 1996 he sent U.S. warships into the Taiwan Strait in a show of force after China tried to intimidate Taiwan with war games and missile tests before its first direct presidential election.
China regards the island as a breakaway province.
Currently, Admiral Prueher is a consulting Professor and Senior Advisor for the Stanford-Harvard Preventive Defense Project.