State Department Walks Back Biden Comments on Chinese Defense-Minister Sanctions

The State Department flatly ruled out lifting sanctions on China’s defense minister, one day after President Biden said the U.S. was considering such a move.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has been trying to secure a meeting with Chinese defense minister General Li Shangfu for months. But Li was placed under U.S. sanctions in 2018 over his role in China’s purchase of weapons from Russia, barring him from traveling to the U.S. Chinese officials have repeatedly stonewalled the Biden administration’s efforts to secure meetings between the two countries, especially in the wake of the Chinese spy-balloon episode.

Although the two officials could meet in a third country, and while Austin wants to meet Li at an international defense conference in Singapore next month, China opposes a meeting while the sanctions remain in place, the Financial Times reported.

Biden was asked about the possibility of lifting the sanctions on Li yesterday during a press conference in Hiroshima, Japan, where he attended the G-7 Summit this weekend. “That’s under negotiation right now,” Biden said, before later adding, “the answer to that is under discussion.”

During the State Department’s daily press briefing this afternoon, a reporter asked spokesman Matthew Miller about Biden’s comments about lifting the sanctions on Li. “No we are not,” Miller answered.

When the reporter followed up, asking if he was saying that Biden’s remarks during the press conference were wrong, Miller said, “very much not so.” He added, “He also made clear that we are not planning to lift any sanctions on him or on China more broadly.” When the reporter asked a third time if the U.S. is entertaining the possibility of lifting sanctions, Miller responded, “no,” a third time.

Miller’s remark about Biden’s ruling out lifting sanctions more broadly only partially reflects what Biden said during the press conference. When Biden was first asked about the defense-minister sanctions, he answered the question as if he had instead been asked about lifting sanctions on exporting to China’s defense department. Later, when the reporter asked a second time about the defense minister, Biden said he thought that the reporter had initially asked if he planned to lift sanctions on selling materials to China’s defense department more generally. He said he doesn’t plan to do that.

But Biden had also clearly indicated that removing the sanctions on Li was up for discussion.

The State Department placed the sanctions on Li, who led China’s Equipment Development Department at the time, in 2018 for facilitating Russia’s transfer of Su-35 fighter jets and S-400 air-defense systems to China’s military. The Trump administration took that step pursuant to the Countering America’s Adversaries through Sanctions Act, a law intended to punish Russia’s 2014 seizures of Ukrainian territory.

During the press conference in Japan, Biden also said that although he and Xi Jinping agreed to  have “an open hotline” during a summit in Bali last year, that there was a rift caused by “this silly balloon,” referring to the surveillance device that the Chinese military flew over sensitive U.S. military sites in February.

“I think you’re going to see that begin to thaw very shortly,” Biden added.