President Joe Biden’s sit-down with Xi Jinping on Wednesday will be heavily focused on encouraging the Chinese leader to restore communications between the US Defence Department and the People’s Liberation Army after a more than year-long rupture exacerbated by the shooting down of a Beijing-owned espionage balloon in February.
The call to resume regular communications, as well as informal exchanges, is aimed at preventing any isolated incident involving the two militaries from spiralling out of control into what could become a shooting war between nuclear-armed nations.
