White House: China Can Have Talks in the Middle East that We Can’t Do as Well

On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Special Report,” White House National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby stated that “China also can have a dialogue with certain actors” in the Middle East “that we may not be able to or may not be able to do as effectively as, perhaps, they can.” And they’re working towards a meeting between President Biden and Xi Jinping “as aggressively as we can.”

Host Bret Baier asked, [relevant exchange begins around 7:10] “The Chinese foreign minister at the White House today. Has the U.S. pressured China at all about how it talks about Israel, Hamas and will the President meet with President Xi on the sidelines of APEC in San Francisco?”

Kirby answered, “Good, constructive conversation today between our national security adviser and Director Wang, and lots on the agenda. Absolutely, the situation in the Middle East was on the agenda. I don’t want to get into revealing the diplomacy here. But we know that China also can have a dialogue with certain actors in the region that we may not be able to or may not be able to do as effectively as, perhaps, they can. They’re going to be president at the U.N. Security Council next month, and, certainly, we’ll look to see what kind of actions and what kind of leadership they try to show in trying to help the international community continue to support Israel. We’ll see where it goes. And, as for the meeting with President Xi, nothing to announce today, but, as you know, President Biden has made it clear that he wants to meet with President Xi. He fully expects to meet with President Xi in the future. We’re working towards that goal. We’re working towards that goal as aggressively as we can.”

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