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A leading official from the Biden State Department, Jose Fernandez, the undersecretary for economic growth, energy, and the environment, spoke at the U.S.-China Business Council gala on Thursday, addressing the Biden administration’s bilateral approach to China.Another speaker at the event, which was sponsored by the council’s corporate donors, was Chinese ambassador Qin Gang.The council is one of Beijing’s biggest allies in Washington. The group represents hundreds of American companies that do business in China and it has lobbied Congress and the White House to tone down the language of bills that would sanction China over its treatment of Uyghur Muslims.Officials with the council reportedly took part in a conference call with Chinese officials this week in which they urged American firms to continue supporting the Olympic Games in Beijing. This comes as calls to boycott the games have grown following the disappearance of Chinese tennis star Peng Shuai, who claimed to have been raped by a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official.But the Biden White House and congressional Democrats have demonstrated a willingness to turn a blind eye to China’s human-rights record in order to win the communists’ cooperation on the issue of climate change. The White House has, for instance, pressured lawmakers to kill a bill that would restrict the importation of goods made in Xinjiang, where Uyghurs are reportedly being subjected to abuses that include forced labor and forced sterilization. Meanwhile, Senate Democrats excluded the bill from consideration on Wednesday.