In my last appearance on the Angel Investment Research podcast, Jason Freiert and I talked about our collective short-term memory.
Specifically, I mentioned the Chinese spy balloon incident, which took place in February but which most people have already forgotten about.
Well, the Pentagon hasn't forgotten.
In fact, President Biden just brought it up again at a fundraiser earlier this week.
"The reason why Xi Jinping got very upset in terms of when I shot that balloon down with twobox cars full of spy equipment is he didn't know it was there," Biden said. "That was the great embarrassment for dictators, when they didn't know what happened. That wasn't supposed to be going where it was."
The latter part of that statement calling Xi Jinping a dictator was pretty brash and it didn't go unnoticed.
China responded quickly calling it "ridiculously absurd," "irresponsible," "a serious breach of diplomatic protocol," and "a serious violation of China's political dignity."
I'd call it counterproductive.
Because also this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken finally paid a visit to Beijing where he met with China's president and other high-ranking officials.
That trip was originally scheduled for February but was delayed by the spy balloon incident.
It was an important visit, too, because China for months has been refusing to engage with the United States in military-to-military dialogue.
Indeed, as in the old days of the Cold War, there exists a special, dedicated crisis line between Washington and Beijing and it's going unanswered.
When U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin used it to reach out following the balloon incident, China's defense minister refused to get on the line.
Similarly, current Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu refused to meet with Austin at Asia's premier annual security forum, the Shangri-La Dialogue, earlier this month.
And while Blinken's trip was a small step forward, he still failed to reopen that military-to-military dialogue. And Joe Biden's latest comment probably undid any good faith that was established.
This is a problem.
Reliable crisis communications were a huge reason why we avoided a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. And they could be just as import in keeping us out of a war with China.
Austin even brought up an ancient incident that most Americans have probably forgotten about the collision between a Chinese fighter and a U.S. spy plane in 2001.