U.s.-china military talks resume on sea, air safety

WASHINGTON — For the first time in nearly two years, U.S. and Chinese defense officials met this week to discuss unsafe and aggressive ship and aircraft incidents between the two militaries in the Pacific region, restarting a dialogue that Beijing abruptly ended in a dispute involving Taiwan.

The meeting, which was Wednesday and Thursday in Hawaii, came as Washington and Beijing work to expand communications between the two world powers and ease escalating tensions. Military-to-military contact had stalled in August 2022, when Beijing suspended all such communication after then-house Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, the self-governing island China claims as its own.

The thaw in relations between the two countries got a kick-start last November when President Joe Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the Asia-pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco.

About a month later, Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with his Chinese counterpart in a video call — in the first senior military-to-military contact since the Pelosi visit.

Other top-level talks have continued, including a call earlier this week between Biden and Xi, and a visit to China by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that began on Thursday.

The resurgence of senior military leader discussions includes the relaunch of routine engagements, including the China-u.s. Military Maritime Consultative Agreement meeting, which was this week in Hawaii, and the bilateral Defense Policy Coordination Talks, which were held earlier this year.

This week’s meeting included personnel from Indo-pacific Command, U.S. Pacific Fleet, U.S. Pacific Air Forces and the People’s Liberation Army.