US sources told Politico that China is rejecting all attempts by Washington to resume high-level contacts and even a telephone conversation between the US and Chinese presidents.
The newspaper quoted US officials as saying that Beijing does not support rescheduling a previously canceled visit to China by US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, coordinating other officials’ travel, and even a phone call between US President Joe Biden and the Chinese. President Xi Jinping.
Beijing’s reluctance to restore diplomatic contacts with Washington may intensify after Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen’s visit to the US and her meetings with US officials.
Blinken has postponed his planned February visit to Beijing indefinitely due to an accident where a Chinese weather balloon entered American airspace before being intercepted and shot down, with the Americans claiming the balloon was on a reconnaissance mission while the Chinese claim that it is a civilian weather balloon that got lost.
The situation around Taiwan escalated sharply after a visit to the island in early August last year by the then Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi.
China, which considers the island one of its provinces, condemned the visit and saw in this step Washington’s support for Taiwanese separatism and held large-scale military exercises.
Source: News