Biden calls Chinese President Xi Jinping about U.S.-China relationship
CBSN
In their first conversation in seven months, President Biden spoke by phone with Chinese President Xi Jinping late Thursday night from the Treaty Room inside the White House residence. The roughly 90-minute call was initiated by Mr. Biden and motivated by what is essentially his exasperation that lower-level Chinese officials have been unwilling to hold substantive conversations during meetings with members of his administration.
A senior administration official told reporters that one of the challenges in U.S.-China interactions to date is that the sense that "they were playing for the press" and using the interactions with Biden administration officials as attempts to push propaganda rather than substance. The tone of Thursday night's call was described as "respectful" while also frank and familiar. The president reiterated that he wants to keep the channels of communication open so the two countries do not unintentionally "veer into conflict." The intent of the call was to have a strategic conversation about how to manage competition between the two world powers. The official also said phone call was a test — to see if conversations at the very highest level would be more effective, given Xi's consolidation of power.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.