China-U.S. Relations: ‘The Shortest Détente Ever’

Starting last fall, Washington had been overtaken by the sense that Beijing was making a genuine attempt to patch things up with the Biden administration. This followed an eventful monthslong stretch in which Chinese Communist Party mouthpieces threatened to shoot down then–House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plane en route to Taiwan, Xi Jinping completed his ascension to new heights of uncontested power, and Beijing suspended its cooperation with the administration on a series of diplomatic initiatives. A swift rhetorical reversal followed, as the government of China grappled with internal crises — protests against its brutal zero-Covid regime and the outbreaks that followed the lifting of that policy.

Belief in the prospects of détente seems to have diminished significantly starting yesterday, when the Pentagon revealed that a likely Chinese surveillance balloon had flown into the U.S. via Alaska, and spent some substantial amount of time over an Air Force base that hosts over 100 U.S. nuclear missiles. China’s foreign ministry claims that the balloon is a civilian meteorological device that drifted away and expressed its regret over the matter.

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Jimmy Quinn

Jimmy Quinn is the former national security correspondent for National Review.

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Starting last fall, Washington had been overtaken by the sense that Beijing was making a genuine attempt to patch things up with the Biden administration. This followed an eventful monthslong stretch in which Chinese Communist Party mouthpieces threatened to shoot down then–House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s plane en route to Taiwan, Xi Jinping completed his ascension to new heights of uncontested power, and Beijing suspended its cooperation with the administration on a series of diplomatic initiatives. A swift rhetorical reversal followed, as the government of China grappled with internal crises — protests against its brutal zero-Covid regime and the outbreaks that followed the lifting of that policy.

Belief in the prospects of détente seems to have diminished significantly starting yesterday, when the Pentagon revealed that a likely Chinese surveillance balloon had flown into the U.S. via Alaska, and spent some substantial amount of time over an Air Force base that hosts over 100 U.S. nuclear missiles. China’s foreign ministry claims that the balloon is a civilian meteorological device that drifted away and expressed its regret over the matter.