The Biden administration is said to have lobbied its counterparts in Beijing this year to agree to a “red phone” hotline between the two governments, similar to the one that linked the US and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
In fact the Pentagon is already said to have a direct line to China for crisis calls. The talk of Washington this week was that Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made two calls to his counterpart in the People’s Liberation Army during the waning months of Donald Trump’s presidency to assure Beijing that the US military wouldn’t strike first.
A new hotline wouldn’t have been of much use this year either, with both governments preferring not to talk directly at the highest level. But there were signs of that changing last Friday, with ...
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