Willie R. Tubbs, FISM News
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President Joe Biden says he wants to mend America’s fractured relationship with China, and he is willing to downplay the Chinese spy balloon fiasco from earlier this year in order to do so.
Speaking to reporters in Japan Sunday, Biden blamed the spy balloon saga for derailing what was already a strained relationship between the two nations.
“[We] should have an open hotline,” Biden said. “[That’s] what [Chinese President Xi Jinping] I agreed we were going to do and meet on. And then this silly balloon that was carrying two freight cars’ worth of spying equipment was flying over the United States, and it got shot down, and everything changed in terms of talking to one another. I think you’re going to see that begin to thaw very shortly.”
Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) released a joint statement last week outlining a shared approach to China.
“We’re not looking to decouple from China, we’re looking to de-risk and diversify our relationship with China,” Biden said. “That means taking steps to diversify our supply chains … so we’re not dependent on any one country for necessary product. It means resisting economic coercion together and countering harmful practices that hurt our workers. It means protecting a narrow set of advanced technologies critical for our national security.”
Biden’s remarks were met with cynicism from Republicans back home.
In response to the president’s “decouple” statement, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) tweeted, “Tell that to the 4 million American workers who have lost their jobs to China.”
Tell that to the 4 million American workers who have lost their jobs to China https://t.co/fTpz6V7HKe
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) May 21, 2023
Biden received massive domestic criticism in March for allowing a Chinese spy balloon to float from coast-to-coast over the United States before ordering the object shot down. China asserts the device was a weather balloon.
But even before the spy balloon issue, the two nations were at odds over economic and geopolitical matters. China and the U.S. have a decades-old disagreement over the independence of Taiwan and China has exacerbated tensions with frequent shows of force over the Taiwan Straits.
The G7 statement contains language that the economic powers of the world “stand prepared to build constructive and stable relations with China.”
“Our policy approaches are not designed to harm China nor do we seek to thwart China’s economic progress and development. A growing China that plays by international rules would be of global interest,” the statement reads.