A top U.S. military official said he believed that Xi Jinping, China’s leader, was likely unaware of the Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States until the controversy erupted. 

“There is a major civil-military divide inside the P.R.C. system. Xi Jinping does not trust his military. He doesn’t.”-- Colin H. Kahl, under secretary of defense for policy, to the New York Times editorial board today. 

“I think they are thoroughly embarrassed by this entire situation,” Mr. Kahl said. “They want to put things back on track.” He added that the United States also had “an interest in getting things into a place where we can have mature conversations.”

 

In a discussion at Columbia University on Friday, Avril D. Haines, the director of national intelligence, said that communicating with China during times of crisis was far more difficult than it was to talk to Soviet leaders in the Cold War.

“One challenge with China is that they tend to clamp down in a crisis and not talk,” she said.