The press reports of Joe Biden’s meeting with Xi Jinping in San Francisco were reasonably positive. I hope they are right. It never hurts to be able to talk with a country as big as China, especially when they have nuclear weapons. But, while reports are that the meeting was good, who knows for sure what the Chinese are really thinking.
One of the results of the meeting that the White House, et al, touted the most was China’s agreement to resume contacts between their military and ours. China cut off these contacts in August, 2022, when then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took a big trip to Taiwan before she left office as Speaker. It was sort of a farewell tour for her. But China was upset, so they, among other things, discontinued regular contacts between their military and ours.1 And they wouldn’t restart them even though we asked; more than once, I think. Which was scary. It increased the chance some small issue, something that could be easily taken care of if the two sides were regularly talking, could wind up becoming a big problem.
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