Current:Home > NewsUS and Chinese military officers resume talks as agreed by Biden and Xi-DB Wealth Institute B2 Expert Reviews
US and Chinese military officers resume talks as agreed by Biden and Xi
View Date:2025-01-13 05:44:06
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. and Chinese military officers have resumed talks that were frozen after former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in the summer of 2022, a development U.S. officials have said is key to keeping the growing competition between the two great powers from turning into direct conflict.
During the deputy-level talks at the Pentagon, the two parties discussed setting future meetings between their military officers, including potentially scheduling a future meeting between Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and newly appointed Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun.
Austin is currently hospitalized due to complications from prostate cancer treatment. He had not been scheduled to attend Tuesday’s meeting. Dong is a former naval commander who was appointed in late December after his predecessor, Li Shangfu, was removed from office.
Li was sanctioned by the U.S. in 2018 for buying Russian weapons. After he was named the defense minister in March 2023, the U.S. did not lift the sanctions. No U.S. defense secretary has visited China since Jim Mattis visited in 2018.
The face-to-face meetings follow a call between Gen. CQ Brown Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his counterpart Gen. Liu Zhenli, several weeks ago, which marked the first senior military communications between the U.S. and China since August 2022.
China’s delegation at the meeting was headed by Maj. Gen. Song Yanchao, deputy director of the Central Military Commission for international military cooperation. He met with Michael Chase, the Pentagon’s deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia.
While administrative in nature, the two-day talks do allow both sides to raise policy concerns. In a readout of the meeting, the Pentagon said that Chase talked about operational safety in the Indo-Pacific and the United States’ commitment to “our longstanding ‘One China’ policy, which is guided by the Taiwan Relations Act,” the Pentagon said in a readout of the meeting.
“The Department will continue to engage in active discussions with PRC counterparts about future engagements between defense and military officials at multiple levels,” the Pentagon said in the readout.
The agreement to resume the military talks was reached between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping during their summit in San Francisco last November.
In a briefing with reporters prior to the meetings, a senior U.S. defense official said while the resumption of the talks is a good sign, “we’re clear-eyed” that significant differences remain between the two militaries, including the implications of China’s movement toward a reunification with Taiwan, which could commit the U.S. to aid in Taiwan’s defense. The official spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity to provide details ahead of the meeting.
Pelosi’s 2022 visit to Taiwan angered China because it claims the island as part of its territory and views visits by foreign government officials as recognition of the island’s sovereignty. She was the highest-ranking American official to visit Taiwan in 25 years.
For the past two years, the Pentagon has faced increased difficulty contacting the Chinese military as the number of intercepts between U.S. and Chinese aircraft and ships sharply rose. According to the Pentagon’s most recent report on China’s military power, Beijing “denied, canceled or ignored” military-to-military communications and meetings with the Pentagon for much of the past two years. The report warned that the lack of such talks “raises the risk of an operational incident or miscalculation spiraling into crisis or conflict.”
veryGood! (22)
Related
- Sting Says Sean Diddy Combs Allegations Don't Taint His Song
- After Dozens of Gas Explosions, a Community Looks for Alternatives to Natural Gas
- Firework injuries send people to hospitals across U.S. as authorities issue warnings
- Entourage's Adrian Grenier Welcomes First Baby With Wife Jordan
- Mike Tyson-Jake Paul: How to watch the fight, time, odds
- Proof Tom Holland Is Marveling Over Photos of Girlfriend Zendaya Online
- The EPA Proposes a Ban on HFC-23, the Most Potent Greenhouse Gas Among Hydrofluorocarbons, by October 2022
- Apple is shuttering My Photo Stream. Here's how to ensure you don't lose your photos.
- Indiana in the top five of the College Football Playoff rankings? You've got to be kidding
- Anna Marie Tendler Reflects on Her Mental Health “Breakdown” Amid Divorce From John Mulaney
Ranking
- Biden, Harris participate in Veterans Day ceremony | The Excerpt
- The Summer I Turned Pretty Season 2 Teaser Features New Version of Taylor Swift's Song August
- Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Son Prince Archie Receives Royally Sweet 4th Birthday Present
- Hurricane Irma’s Overlooked Victims: Migrant Farm Workers Living at the Edge
- US Diplomats Notch a Win on Climate Super Pollutants With Help From the Private Sector
- Firework injuries send people to hospitals across U.S. as authorities issue warnings
- The Paris Agreement Was a First Step, Not an End Goal. Still, the World’s Nations Are Far Behind
- Allow Kylie Jenner to Give You a Mini Tour of Her California Home
Recommendation
-
Supreme Court seems likely to allow class action to proceed against tech company Nvidia
-
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Son Prince Archie Receives Royally Sweet 4th Birthday Present
-
Multiple shark attacks reported off New York shores; 50 sharks spotted at one beach
-
Alligator attacks and kills woman who was walking her dog in South Carolina
-
Horoscopes Today, November 10, 2024
-
A New Book Feeds Climate Doubters, but Scientists Say the Conclusions are Misleading and Out of Date
-
Ariana Madix Reveals Where She Stands on Marriage After Tom Sandoval Affair
-
1.5 Degrees Warming and the Search for Climate Justice for the Poor