The U.S.-China relationship, long fraught, has only become more strained since the start of Biden’s presidency. Biden has repeatedly criticized China for military provocations against Taiwan, human rights abuses against ethnic minorities and efforts to squelch pro-democracy advocates in Hong Kong.

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Earlier this week, the U.S. informed Asian and European allies that American intelligence had determined that China had signaled to Russia that it would be willing to provide both military support for the campaign in Ukraine and financial backing to help stave off the impact of severe sanctions imposed by the West.

Point of personal privilege: The first meeting between Blinken or the like and Chinese counterparts went, in my reaction, horribly. It was a food fight and I thought that it was a mistake. Shocked, I emailed a China-reporting Pulitzer Prize winner with whom I had corresponded very briefly. "Why do we keep raising human rights?" was the gravamen of my email. My point was that if we're going to deal with China we have to accept them for what they are and for what they're not. If we don't want to deal with them, fine! But if we do, forty-five years of human rights, human rights, human rights have gotten us squat that is positive, it pisses them off every time we do it, and it has chilled relations substantially. To the point that, in part, we drove the PRC into the arms of Russia. My correspondent would have none of it: "I don't think it was a mistake to raise human rights."