Xi Jinping rejects US proposal for military hotline, Blinken says.

Chinese President Xi Jinping rejected US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's request to re-establish a military backchannel, which was scrapped last year in protest of a Taiwan trip by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Blinken said China agreed to cooperate on other fronts, including halting the export of synthetic opioid fentanyl. Blinken did not mention some major US priorities at his press conference, such as determining the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. The US is interested in "derisking" and "diversifying" its trade relationships with China.