Xie joined the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1986. His first prominent position was Director of the Department of North American and Oceanian Affairs for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2010 to 2014. He served as
Ambassador of China to Indonesia from 2014 to 2017 and as
commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Hong Kong from 2017 to 2021. In 2021, he was appointed Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of China, where he was responsible for specifically managing
China's relationship with the United States. He served as a member of the
14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference on 17 January 2023 from the Friendship with Foreign Countries Sector. He was removed from the office of vice minister of foreign affairs on 24 May 2023. On 23 May 2023, he was appointed Ambassador of China to the United States. On 1 July 2023, Xie presented his
credentials to United States president
Joe Biden. On 20 April 2024, while speaking at the China Conference in
Harvard Kennedy School, Xie's speech was disrupted by students belonging to organizations
Students for a Free Tibet and Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP who shouted slogans condemning
human rights violations in Tibet,
Xinjiang and
Hong Kong, and Chinese aggression against Taiwan. ==Personal life==