Tag: Biden, Joseph R Jr

Biden Says Xi Was Not Informed About Spy Balloon

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This was not the first time Mr. Biden has made off-the-cuff remarks about foreign policy during an evening fund-raiser. At another such event in New York in October, he warned donors that the world was closer to nuclear destruction than at any time since John F. Kennedy faced off against Nikita S. Khrushchev over Soviet missiles in Cuba in 1962. “We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” Mr. Biden said then, prompting a nervous reaction. In California on Tuesday, Mr. Biden was…

Blinken Visit Reveals Chasm in How U.S. and China Perceive Rivalry

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An austere greeting on the airport tarmac in Beijing sans a red carpet. A stone-faced handshake from China’s top foreign policy official. A seat looking up at the Chinese leader, Xi Jinping, perched at the head of a long table. To international audiences, the optics of Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken’s two-day visit to Beijing barely raised any eyebrows. Foreign ministers are rarely, if ever, met with much fanfare at the airport. And an audience with a head of state alone is a sign of great importance and respect.…

Blinken Meets Xi as China and the U.S. Try to Ease Tensions

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Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with Xi Jinping, China’s leader, on Monday in Beijing, as the two governments sought to pull relations out of a deep chill that has raised global concerns about the growing risk of a conflict between them. The 35-minute meeting, which capped a two-day visit by Mr. Blinken, sent a signal, at least for now, that the United States and China do not want their relationship to be defined by open hostility, and that they recognize that their rivalry and their diplomatic efforts carry…

Biden Administration Engages in Long-Shot Attempt for Saudi-Israel Deal

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Shortly after his plane took off earlier this month from Riyadh, where he had held a lengthy meeting with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken called a different Middle East leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel. Over 40 minutes, Mr. Blinken gave the Israeli leader a briefing about the significant demands the young crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was making for his nation to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel. Mr. Netanyahu had an update on his own demands. The phone call — described by two American…

Republicans Attack Blinken for China Trip, Threatening Subpoena

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The News Leading congressional Republicans excoriated Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken on Friday for traveling to China this weekend, accusing him of undermining national security by attempting to normalize diplomatic relations with Beijing as they press for a more hard-line approach. Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas and the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, threatened to subpoena Mr. Blinken if he failed to produce documents by Friday evening detailing the list of retaliatory actions the U.S. government has considered against China, and when they were applied. “The Biden…

As Blinken Heads to China, Suspicion Awaits Him

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Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken makes his long-delayed visit to China beginning Sunday in the hope of slowing the downward spiral of relations between Beijing and Washington. But China’s increasingly assertive, at times outright hostile, stance suggests that the visit will be as much about confrontation as détente. In China’s telling, the United States is a declining, hegemonic power that is seeking to cling to its dominance in China’s backyard and provoke Beijing over its claim on Taiwan, the self-governed island democracy. The country’s leader, Xi Jinping, accuses the…

U.S. Agencies Breached in Cyberattack by Russian Ransomware Group

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A Russian ransomware group gained access to data from federal agencies, including the Energy Department, in an attack that exploited file transfer software to steal and sell back users’ data, U.S. officials said on Thursday. Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, described the breach as largely “opportunistic” and neither focused on “specific high-valuable information” nor as damaging as previous cyberattacks on U.S. government agencies. “Although we are very concerned about this campaign, this is not a campaign like SolarWinds that poses a systemic risk,” Ms.…

Blinken Plans to Meet With Top Chinese Officials in Beijing

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The News The State Department announced on Wednesday that Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken planned to leave on Friday for a visit to Beijing to stress to Chinese officials “the importance of maintaining open lines of communication to responsibly manage” the relationship between the two nations. Mr. Blinken also plans to “raise bilateral issues of concern, global and regional matters, and potential cooperation on shared transnational challenges,” the State Department said. The trip is one that Mr. Blinken had to reschedule after canceling a planned visit on the day…

A Saudi-China business conference underscores strengthening ties.

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The message at an Arab-China business forum hosted by Saudi Arabia this week was not particularly subtle, as hundreds of Chinese officials and executives gathered beneath giant chandeliers, smiling for selfies and snacking on organic dates. “If you want a trusted partner in the world — one of the best partners in the world — it’s the People’s Republic of China,” Mohammed Abunayyan, the chairman of a Saudi renewable energy company, declared from the stage, to resounding applause. “China is a partner you can depend on,” he said on Sunday, the…

China Has Had a Spy Base in Cuba for Years, U.S. Official Says

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A Chinese spy base in Cuba that could intercept electronic signals from nearby U.S. military and commercial buildings has been up and running since or before 2019, when the Chinese base was upgraded, according to a Biden administration official. The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence, said the spy base was an issue that the Biden administration had inherited from former President Donald J. Trump. After Mr. Biden took office, his administration was briefed about the base in Cuba as well as plans China was…