Biden Is Right to Reach Out to China

In a bid to halt an alarming deterioration in relations, President Joe Biden’s administration is making a concerted effort to reengage with China. It’s still unclear how Chinese leaders will respond to US overtures, and Republicans are hammering White House officials for looking like supplicants. Biden should push forward anyway — because the alternative to diplomacy is far worse.

Since February, when Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a planned trip to Beijing after a Chinese spy balloon was spotted above Montana, tensions between the superpowers have escalated. Chinese officials have declined to agree to meetings or take calls from their US counterparts, or to reschedule Blinken’s visit. They’ve derided the value of dialogue “for the sake of communication,” demanding Washington “take concrete actions” to revive relations. Meanwhile, US politicians in Congress and in state governments have busied themselves playing whack-a-mole with a range of threats both real and imaginary, from China’s expanding fleet of ICBMs to its purchases of US farmland.