An abrupt setback interrupts the general rehearsal of a thaw between Washington and Beijing. China has harshly rejected the American proposal for a meeting between the two defense ministers, on the margins of a multilateral summit to be held in Singapore this weekend. Xi Jinping thus decides to prolong his retaliation, triggered after the incident of the Chinese spy balloon intercepted over the American skies and then shot down.

Relations between the two superpowers therefore remain marked by tension, and what is worse, by the lack of communications between military leaders. Unlike the first US-USSR cold war when the famous "red telephone" existed between the Kremlin and the White House, today there are fears that the absence of emergency consultation procedures could make it more difficult to prevent sudden crises.