White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre dodged a question about when President Biden will confront Chinese President Xi Jinping over his country’s ramped-up aggression toward the U.S. in recent months.
Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy pressed Jean-Pierre on the issue during a Wednesday briefing at the White House. Doocy referenced recent revelations about alleged secret Chinese police stations operating in the U.S., as well as China’s recent spy craft flying over the country.
“China is setting up police stations in the U.S.; there is more proof now that they created COVID; there is reason to think that there were more spy balloons than the White House has said. Why is it taking so long for President Biden to call Xi and tell him to cut it out?” Doocy asked.
“We have said over and over again that the president intends to call President Xi. I don’t have a call to read out to you at this time,” Jean-Pierre responded. “Look, and we’ve said this before, we believe it’s important to maintain open lines of communication with China.”
“We believe that it is an important bilateral relationship, the U.S.-China relationship, even as we’re talking about strategic competition with China,” she continued. “That has not changed. We’re going to continue to move forward in that way.”
The FBI arrested two New York residents on Monday for allegedly running a secret Chinese government police station in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood. The organization proved to be just one of several such stations believed to be in operation across North America, with authorities saying others have been found in Los Angeles, Houston, and Toronto, Canada.
The police station arrests came just weeks after China flew a surveillance craft across the continental U.S., only for Biden to order it shot down off the coast of South Carolina. The Biden administration said that was only the most recent of several such incursions into U.S. airspace.
While Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a planned meeting with his Chinese counterpart over the balloon debacle, Biden has yet to speak with Xi regarding China’s various breaches of U.S. sovereignty.
The leaders last spoke publicly in November 2022, despite Biden stating in mid-February that he expected to be speaking with Xi and “get to the bottom of this.”