‘Face the Nation’ Moderator Margaret Brennan Talks About Her Visit To Beijing, What’s Misunderstood In Rising U.S.-China Tensions And The Potential Fallout From A Ban Of TikTok
deadline.comMargaret Brennan recently was among a small number of reporters who traveled with Secretary of State Antony Blinken to China, a trip designed to turn down the temperature on simmering tensions with Beijing.
That was reflected in what it took for the Face the Nation moderator and CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent to secure a visa for the trip, “Until I had that in hand, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get on the Secretary of State’s plane,” she said, adding that she had permission to be in the country just seven days. “That’s all we could get, and that is something we consider ourselves fortunate to get, because the Chinese government hasn’t been allowing in, at least for long-term visa access, journalists who weren’t already living in the country,” she said.
The network does have a cameraman who has been living in China for decades but, reflecting the tension between the two countries, the Beijing government has been otherwise limiting access.
There is a bit of a “tit for tat,” Brennan said, because of U.S. restrictions on Chinese state media access here. With 2024 presidential candidates expected to make China a central feature of their campaign rhetoric, Brennan said that the complexities of the relationship can get lost. “Often in the American frame of reference, the Cold War with the Soviet Union is seen as the ultimate clash,” she said. “And this is more complicated, more complex and potentially more dangerous.
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