'Face the Nation' moderator Margaret Brennan talks about her visit to Beijing, what's misunderstood about rising US-China tensions and the potential fallout from a TikTok ban

Margaret Brennan was recently among a small number of journalists who traveled with the secretary of State Antony Blinken in China, a trip designed to bring the temperature down on simmering tensions with Beijing.

This was reflected in what it took for the moderator to Face the Nation and CBS News' Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent to get a visa for the trip, "Until I got it, I wasn't sure I could get on the plane from secretary of state,” she said, adding that she had clearance to be in the country for only seven days.

"That's all we could get, and that's something we consider lucky to have, because the Chinese government did not allow entry, at least for long-term visa access, to journalists who were not already living in the country,” she said. The network has a cameraman who has lived in China for decades but, reflecting the tension between the two countries, the government in Beijing has otherwise limited access. There's a bit of a "so for a donation," Brennan said. , due to US restrictions on access to Chinese state media here.

With 2024 presidential candidates expected to make China a central part of their campaign rhetoric, Brennan said 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 showdown,” she said. “And it's more complicated, more complex and potentially more dangerous. And I don't think America fully understands that. The Soviet Union simply didn't have the clout of China."

Season to date, Face the Nation (in its format of a half-hour) outpaced its rivals in total viewership and the demo 25-54. Brennan has been hosting Face the Nation for five years, and she'll soon have a new broadcast rival: Kristen Welker, who takes the helm of NBC News' Meet the Press. em> in the fall.

In a recent interview with Deadline, Brennan spoke about tensions in China, concerns over the freedom of overseas press reports, and on the changes in the Sunday morning landscape.

DEADLINE: Along with Secretary Blinken, he said he thought the visit helped to establish greater stability in the US-China relationship. How much do you think this was undermined when President Biden was a dictator?

BRENNAN: I remember watching them say, "Oh." I think there's always the public claiming that is happening, and you certainly see it in Chinese propaganda. You see this in the very cautious remarks that are being made to the American press as well as by American officials. It's a very strained relationship, and there's no longer the illusion, and Biden officials would tell you, that America is going to change China. And they accept that it's kind of going to be that kind of tense showdown on many, many fronts. And now it remains only to manage it. So it's not like the US and China are going to be friends and allies here. So for President Biden to have said that, certainly, I'm sure there were other diplomats who sort of winced when they heard it. It's not that it's not factually correct in terms of the increasingly authoritarian nature of the Chinese state. And that's one of the things that actually causes some concern: President Xi's expansion of control over the economy, over business, over access capability, that's a problem in some ways for the investment and stuff...I don't know think the whole trip was undermined. I think the United States and China are adversaries. They're just kind of trying to lower the tension enough to be competitors, but they're not friends.

DEADLINE: What's the difference between press restrictions and previous trips you've taken in China?