US, China defence chiefs hold talks for first time since 2022
Austin’s call comes as Blinken is expected to travel to China soon; a senior defence official says that Austin’s call gives the US the opportunity to prevent ongoing competition with China from veering into conflict
Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke with China’s national defence minister on Tuesday morning, in the latest in a series of US steps to improve communications with the Chinese military and reduce unsafe and aggressive incidents in the Indo-pacific.
It was the first time Austin has talked to Adm. Dong Jun and the first time he has spoken at length with any Chinese counterpart since November 2022.
The call comes as Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to travel to China this month for talks.
Washington and Beijing have been working to expand communications and ease escalating tensions.
Military-to-military contact stalled in August 2022, when Beijing suspended all such communication ater then-house Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, which China claims as its own.
The thaw in relations between the two world powers 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.
Austin’s call with Dong has been widely anticipated, but the admiral was only appointed to the defence job in December. Previous defence minister Wei Fenghe turned down a Pentagon request to speak with Austin last year ater the US shot down a Chinese spy balloon that had floated across the country.
Austin had previously met Wei in 2022 on the sidelines of a defence conference in Cambodia.
Defence officials are concerned about unsafe and unprofessional incidents involving the US and Chinese militaries in the Pacific.
Pelosi’s visit sparked a surge in military maneuvers by China. Beijing dispatched warships and aircraft across the median line in the Taiwan Strait, claiming the de facto boundary did not exist, fired missiles over Taiwan itself, and challenged established norms by firing missiles into Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
During the following two years, US military officials repeatedly objected to a range of unsafe intercepts by Chinese aircraft in the Pacific and other dangerous incidents. Some of those confrontations have ebbed a bit, but the US has been concerned about aggressive behaviour by Chinese vessels against Philippine ships in the South China Sea.
A senior defence official told reporters that Austin’s call on Tuesday gives the US the opportunity to prevent ongoing competition with China from veering into conflict.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide a preview of the call, said the US hasn’t seen any unsafe or unprofessional intercepts of American aircraft since last November, but China’s coercive behaviour towards Philippines’ ships risks escalation.
US and Chinese defence officials met earlier this month in Hawaii to discuss aggressive ship and aircrat incidents between the two militaries in the Pacific region.
The two-day China-us Military Maritime Consultative Agreement meeting included about 18 military and civilian personnel from each side and it was the first time since 2019 that it was held in person. There was a virtual meeting in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, US Patent and Trademark Office Director Kathi Vidal said on Tuesday that intellectual property rights (IPR) continue to be a main concern for US businesses in China, and they face significant challenges with infringement.
“Whether it’s insufficient deterrence for infringement, challenges to pharmaceutical related patents, or the misappropriation of trade secrets, intellectual property rights protection and enforcement remain a key issue of concern in the Us-china bilateral relationship,” Vidal said at an event with atendees from the US business community and legal fields in Beijing.
Vidal said the issue harms US firms and workers, and that it is a concern not just held by US companies, but by other nations as well.