Global Courant
CIA director William Burns secretly visited China last month in an attempt to mend relations with Beijing amid a tense relationship with the Biden administration after the shooting down of a Chinese surveillance balloon that crossed the United States earlier this year.
Burns met with his Chinese counterparts to emphasize “the importance of maintaining open lines of communication in intelligence channels,” according to the Financial Times, which first reported on the visit.
Dialogue between the Biden administration and Beijing has been almost dormant in recent months, as attempts at interaction have stalled since the balloon incident.
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According to reports, CIA Director William Burns secretly visited China last month to mend relations between Washington and Beijing. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
A previously planned trip by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, where he was to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, was cancelled. In addition, an expected telephone call between Xi and Biden has not yet come to fruition.
On Monday, China said it had turned down an offer to allow US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to meet with Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu. On Friday, the two shook hands during the opening dinner of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
The pair spoke briefly, but there were no meaningful exchanges, officials said.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with his Chinese counterpart earlier this month, as did Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. However, the Pentagon confirmed that the meeting of defense leaders was rejected.
Diplomatic relations between Washington and Beijing quickly deteriorated after the military in February shot down a Chinese spy balloon that was detected in US airspace traveling across the US. China criticized the shooting.
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“There are many balloons in the sky from different countries all over the world. Do you want to take them down one by one?” Chinese diplomat Wang Yi said at the time. “It doesn’t show that America is strong, on the contrary, it shows the opposite.”
In addition, Beijing has taken offense after the US warned China not to arm Russia to aid its war in Ukraine.
US intelligence concluded that Chinese officials were considering providing deadly aid to Moscow.
