Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted on Monday that Chinese President Xi Jinping had rejected his request to reinstate a military return channel to avoid a potential conflict that has existed for a long time between the US and Russia.
Blinken told reporters after meeting Xi in Beijing that he had “repeatedly” raised the difficulty during his trip, but “in the intervening time China will not be agreeing to move forward.”
The Chinese government severed each the military-military line and a few diplomatic talks last yr in protest of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-California) trip to Taiwan, and the Biden administration said restoring the connection was one in every of its top goals Blinken goals.
“I believe it’s absolutely essential that we’ve this sort of communication, army to army,” Blinken said at a 31-minute news conference within the Chinese capital. “I believe that is a problem we’d like to work on further. It is vitally necessary that we restore these channels.”
Blinken said Chinese officials have agreed to cooperate on other fronts, including halting exports of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, which is causing a record variety of drug overdose deaths within the US, because it is increasingly mixed with non-opioid drugs – resembling cocaine – and pumped into counterfeit drugs. medicines .
![US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, June 19.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012897087.jpg?w=1024)
“Fentanyl is the primary killer amongst Americans 18-49,” noted Blinken, adding, “We agreed to consider forming a working group or joint effort so we are able to cut off the flow of precursor chemicals which have helped fuel this crisis and rising death toll. “.
The Biden administration has faced political aggression from Republicans for not doing more to address the fentanyl problem at its source in China.
Anti-drug trafficking talks reportedly were amongst people who were placed on hold due to resentment over Pelosi’s visit. In 2022, fentanyl and related compounds were killed estimated 75,000 Americans – all-time record – after killing chemicals largely made in China roughly 71,000 Americans in 2021 jump from about 58 thousand in 2020 greater than 36,000 in 2019 and around 31,000 in 2018
Blinken didn’t mention a few of the top US priorities in his press conference, resembling determining the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed over a million Americans.
![US Secretary of State Antony Blinken holds a press conference at the Beijing American Center of the US Embassy in Beijing on June 19.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012900736.jpg?w=1024)
President Biden said in an August 2021 written statement, after U.S. spy agencies said it was “probable” that the virus leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China, that “[t]the world deserves answers and I won’t rest until we get them,” calling on Beijing for “full” transparency to “prevent further pandemics” and admonishing that “[r]responsible nations don’t shirk this sort of responsibility.
China has been opaque concerning the origin of COVID-19, and Biden has barely touched on the subject since his statement – despite growing consensus, including from the FBI and Department of Energy, including US National Labs, that the virus likely leaked from Wuhan labs operating dangerous US-funded “gain of function” research that changed the genetics of bat coronaviruses.
Blinken also stressed that the Biden administration will not be concerned with an economic “separation” from China – a term utilized by former President Donald Trump, who’s looking for a rematch with Biden in 2024.
![Chinese President Xi Jinping gestures during a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (not pictured) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, June 19.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000012897546.jpg?w=1024)
As an alternative, Blinken said, the US is concerned with “shrinking risks” and “diversifying” its trade relationship.
“Our countries trade more within the last yr – greater than ever within the last yr, almost $700 billion. A healthy and solid economic engagement advantages each the USA and China,” Blinken said.
The historic existence of the US-China military talks caught the eye of the general public after reports that Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sought to appease Chinese defense leaders through the chaotic final period of Trump’s term by assuring them they’d get heads-up against the US attack.
“I said, ‘Hell, I’ll call you. But we’re not going to attack you,” Milley told the House of Representatives for Armed Services in September 2021, essentially corroborating an account of the “Peril” book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.
The Biden family has extensive business relationships with entities linked to the Chinese government – although the president complained “give me a break man” in February when asked if his ability to manage relationships was “compromised” after a Chinese spy balloon flew through United States .
Hunter Biden’s first son co-founded the investment fund BHR Partners with Chinese state-owned entities in 2013 – just 12 days after Hunter joined then-Vice President Biden aboard Air Force Two for an official trip to Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reports.
![A fighter jet flies past the remains of a large balloon after it was shot down over the Atlantic Ocean, just off the coast of South Carolina, near Myrtle Beach, Feb. 4.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000006724050.jpg?w=1024)
Hunter introduced his dad to BHR CEO Jonathan Li on a trip to the Chinese capital, and Joe Biden later wrote letters of advice to Li’s kid’s college.
The status of Hunter’s 10% stake in BHR, which he says has nearly $2.2 billion in assets under management, stays unclear, and the White House has denied any transparency.
Allegedly leaked BHR documents suggest that Hunter’s “sugar brother” Kevin Morris, a wealthy Hollywood lawyer, can have taken over the stake, although government databases haven’t been updated.
First brother James Biden and first son Hunter later launched a second business enterprise in China – with government-linked CEFC China Energy – and ended up receiving $4.8 million in 2017 and 2018, according to the Washington Post’s review of Hunter’s abandoned laptops.
Joe Biden was dubbed a “big guy” for a 10 percent discount in a May 2017 email concerning the CEFC, a now-defunct cog in Beijing’s “Belt and Road” foreign influence campaign.
Two of Hunter Biden’s former associates, Tony Bobulinski and James Gilliar, individually referred to the president as a “big guy.”
Bobulinski claims to have discussed the CEFC take care of Joe Biden, and an October 2017 email from Hunter Biden’s laptop identifies Joe Biden as being in conversation regarding CEFC’s attempt to purchase US natural gas.
![FBI Special Agents assigned to the Evidence Response Team process material recovered from a high-altitude balloon excavated off the coast of South Carolina.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/06/NYPICHPDPICT000006538068.jpg?w=1024)
The CEFC relationship appears to have began around 2015 when Hunter made contact with Vuk Jeremić, a former Serbian foreign minister and president of the UN General Assembly who was running for UN Secretary General as his dad was vp.
Blinken’s trip to China got here after Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu refused to meet Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on the sidelines of the Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore earlier this month.
The 2 shook hands, “but there was no substantive exchange,” said Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said on the time.