Biden wanted to speak with China's Xi after U.S. shot down surveillance balloon

NBC News ^ | June 16, 2023 | Courtney Kube and Carol E. Lee

[The_Media_never_lie]

President Joe Biden wanted to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping in the days after the U.S. military shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina — even saying publicly that he expected to do so — but his top national security advisers talked him out of it, according to two senior administration officials and one former senior U.S. official familiar with the discussions.

Biden believed his relationship with Xi could help tamp down the newly escalated tensions with Beijing if he had the opportunity to speak directly and smooth things over, the officials said. But the president’s advisers made the case to him that it was not the right time for a leader-to-leader conversation, the officials said. Instead, Biden’s advisers told him, the best course of action was to begin outreach to Beijing with lower or midlevel officials, and work the way up to the top, according to the officials.

China was far too angry over Biden’s decision to have the balloon shot down, after it had flown across the U.S. for a week, for a phone call with Xi to be productive, the officials said the president’s advisers told him.

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[The_Media_never_lie]

It made no sense for Xi to be angry, unless Biden broke his agreement with Xi for the flyover.