This story was originally published by the WND News Center.

When Chinese balloons started floating over the United States a few weeks back, apparently spying on infrastructure and dispatching secret information back to Beijing, a top Biden official actually was working to protect China, according to a new report.

Reuters documented that while some officials "were confident" the episode would trigger a slate of actions, "Instead, the U.S. State Department held back human rights-related sanctions, export controls, and other sensitive actions to try to limit damage to the U.S.-China relationship."

The report cited sources with direct knowledge of U.S. policy, as well as internal emails seen by Reuters.

"The delays to items on the department's 'competitive actions' calendar, a classified rolling list of steps the Biden administration has planned related to China, have alarmed some U.S. officials and revealed a divide between those in the U.S. government pushing for tougher action against China and others advocating a more restrained approach," the report said.

While the State Department publicly was expressing unhappiness over the spy balloons spotted above some of America's military installations, it also did postpone Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to Beijing.

But, the report said, U.S. officials actually were pushing back against "planned actions" against China.

"Guidance from S (Secretary of State) is to push non-balloon actions to the right so we can focus on symmetric and calibrated response. We can revisit other actions in a few weeks," said an email from Rick Waters, deputy assistant secretary for China and Taiwan to staff members.

But the report said those other actions still have to be addressed.

It is true that members of Congress say the U.S. needs open channels with Beijing, but they also said the current position "hews too closely to an earlier strategy of engagement that enabled China to extract concessions in exchange for high-level dialogues that often yielded few tangible results."

The report said Blinken largely has given responsibility for China's decisions to Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.