Bizarrely, the flight of the Chinese military spy balloon over the U.S. may be the occasion for U.S. concessions to Beijing, rather than the other way around.
According to a new report from Reuters, the State Department’s “China House” team was ordered to stand down on some long-planned measures targeting the Chinese Communist Party’s malfeasance, so that Secretary of State Antony Blinken can secure the trip to China that he had to cancel after the balloon incident.
Citing four State Department sources and internal emails, Reuters reveals that Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman ordered this shift to a policy that favors “engagement” with China. The head of China House, the department’s new China-policy coordination cell, told State Department staff members in March that Sherman said the department would “move on” from the balloon incident.
What this means in specific terms is worrying. State has blocked the release of an FBI investigation into the balloon’s contents that had initially been slated for mid-April, per Reuters. And two additional moves that have, in the outlet’s words, “damaged morale” at China House include State’s opposition to new restrictions tightening Washington’s campaign to strangle Huawei, and the continued delay of sanctions on Chinese Communist Party officials behind the Uyghur genocide that were originally intended to take effect last October.
