Trump-Xi Rift Plays Out With Some 100 Canceled Exchanges, Talks
- Raft of forums spanning China, U.S. agencies now discontinued
- Lost relationships, contacts escalate risk in crisis: analysts
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President Donald Trump’s revelation last month that he hadn’t spoken with his Chinese counterpart in “a long time” and isn’t interested in doing so is just the tip of a much broader breakdown in communications that’s stoking concerns among former officials from both sides.
When the Trump administration took office in 2017, there were about 100 officially organized exchange forums -- touching on everything from pharmaceuticals to technology policy -- between the two countries, according to Arthur Kroeber, a China analyst for almost three decades. Gao Zhikai, a former Chinese diplomat who served as translator to Deng Xiaoping, cites the same tally.