Efforts to build a floor under U.S.-China relations have yet to be successful and coming months will determine if it is possible to reestablish constructive diplomacy with Beijing, a top White House official said on Thursday, stressing the need for "Cold War"-era hotlines and other crisis mechanisms. Speaking at a time of heightened tensions with China over a U.S. stopover by Taiwan's president, U.S. Indo-Pacific coordinator Kurt Campbell said Washington had made clear to Beijing it was ready to have another call between President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. "We're prepared and, from our perspective, we want to keep lines of communication open and it is our intention to keep those lines open," he said at an event hosted by the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) think tank. Campbell said the Chinese had been "reluctant to engage in discussions around confidence-building or crisis communications, or hotlines" and it would be a "responsible step" to have such mechanisms, given that Chinese and U.S. military forces operated in proximity to each other. "We built those during the Cold War. We think that they're appropriate now," he added. (https://neuters.de/world/efforts-build-floor-under-us-china-relations-not-yet-successful-us-official-2023-03-30/) Campbell said the U.S. was in the early stages of a new phase of competitive relations with China.
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