When Xi Jinping was looking for someone to succeed the abruptly removed Qin Gang as foreign minister last summer, people familiar with the matter say, one name made it to the top of the Chinese leader’s list.

       Liu Jianchao was an unusual candidate in many ways. A translator-turned-diplomat, he heads a Communist Party agency traditionally tasked with building ties with other Communist states such as North Korea and Vietnam. His U.S. experience has been relatively limited compared with that of many previous foreign ministers. His stints at the party’s anticorruption watchdog also make him a rarity in the country’s foreign-policy establishment.

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