Report: Biden’s Key Adviser on China Policy to Leave Admin After Balloon Episode

President Joe Biden’s key adviser on China policy will leave the administration after the suspected Chinese spy balloon fiasco early this month, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing White House officials.

Laura Rosenberger, special assistant to the president and the White House National Security Council’s senior director for China and Taiwan, will depart the White House next month, the report said.

While her exit comes just after the U.S. military shot down a Chinese vessel believed to be surveillance aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean, Bloomberg noted that her “exit plans have long been in the works and are not related to the ongoing feud” between the U.S. and communist China.

Bloomberg reported that the State Department’s Sarah Beran would replace Rosenberger, a career Foreign Service Officer who once served as director for the State’s Office of Chinese and Mongolian Affairs. Rush Doshi, who currently serves on the NSC as China director, will serve as deputy.

The White House claimed that Rosenberger helped strengthen the U.S.’s unofficial relations with Taiwan by broadening and deepening engagement with the island nation.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told Bloomberg:

Under President Biden, we are more prepared to outcompete China and advance a free and open Indo-Pacific than ever before. Since the first day of the administration, Laura’s skilled diplomacy and tenacity have been essential to this administration priority, and we are immensely grateful for her service.

Bloomberg also reported that the special assistant to the president and the NSC’s senior director for Russia and Central Asia, Eric Green, is also leaving his post in the administration.

Tensions between China and the U.S. appeared to grow after the U.S. military shot down a Chinese balloon believed to be surveillance aircraft in early February over the Atlantic Ocean off the Carolina coast. Despite U.S. officials claiming it was a spy balloon with surveillance capability, China maintains it was just an off-course weather balloon.

Vice President Kamala Harris told Politico during an interview Tuesday the U.S. military downing a suspected Chinese spy balloon should not impact diplomatic relations with communist China. “I don’t think so, no,” she told the outlet. Harris also argued the Biden administration seeks “competition” with Beijing and “not conflict or confrontation.”

Jacob Bliss is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at jbliss@breitbart.com or follow him on Twitter @JacobMBliss.