China’s top diplomat in the U.S. visited the Pentagon this week for a rare meeting with the top U.S. defense official for Asia, signaling a possible opening of military communications between Washington and Beijing since the Chinese side shut them down nearly a year ago.
Pentagon officials say Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng held talks Wednesday with Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Ely Ratner. The meeting came after months of Chinese refusals to restore military-to-military contacts with Washington, despite repeated requests by the Biden administration.
Concern around the lack of such communications has spiked since the U.S. Air Force shot down a Chinese high-altitude surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina after the spycraft traversed the continental United States, potentially soaking up intelligence on sensitive nuclear sites.
China most recently rejected a request by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during a visit to Beijing, for military-to-military contacts to be restored to avoid a clash over Chinese threats to the U.S.-backed island democracy of Taiwan.
Mr. Blinken said he raised the issue of military communications “repeatedly” during the late June visit, but was rebuffed by Chinese officials.
“It is absolutely vital that we have these kinds of communications,” he said, adding that it was something the U.S. will “keep working on.”
The secretary said he emphasized during meetings, including a 35-minute session with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the importance the Biden administration attaches to military communications in preventing a conflict.
The Blinken development came weeks after Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin gave competing speeches on the Taiwan issue at the Shangri-La Dialogue — an international defense forum — in Singapore, where Mr. Li snubbed Mr. Austin’s request to hold an in-depth meeting.
More recent weeks, however, have seen a range of nonmilitary diplomatic meetings between U.S. and Chinese officials as part of the Biden administration’s outreach to Beijing in hopes of easing historically high U.S.-China friction, plus China’s growing interest in easing for economic reasons.
China remains the No. 2 U.S. trade partner globally, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited Beijing last week. John Kerry, the Biden administration’s climate envoy and a former secretary of state with long-time experience visiting with Chinese officials, is reported to be heading to China next week.
Wednesday’s rare visit to the Pentagon by Mr. Xie came after a recent invitation to the ambassador from the Defense Department, according to Army Lt. Col. Martin Meiners, a Pentagon spokesman.
“Assistant Secretary Ratner and Ambassador Xie discussed U.S.-[People’s Republic of China] defense relations, as well as a range of international and regional security issues,” Lt. Col. Meiners said in a statement, adding that Mr. Ratner “underscored the department’s commitment to maintaining open lines of military-to-military communication between the United States and the PRC.”
In a statement early Thursday, the Chinese Embassy in Washington said Mr. Xie urged the U.S. to meet China halfway to get relations between the two countries and their militaries on the right track, according to Reuters.
The news agency reported that Mr. Xie requested during his meeting with Mr. Ratner that “the U.S. side take action to remove obstacles, manage differences, handle Taiwan and other important and sensitive issues cautiously in accordance with the principles of the three Sino-U.S. joint communiques.”
China suspended regular contact with the U.S. military last August after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan, challenging Beijing’s principle that other countries should refrain from official exchanges with self-governing Taiwan, which China claims as its territory.
The problem existed even before Mrs. Pelosi’s visit. U.S. officials say China has declined or failed to respond to over a dozen requests since 2021 from the Defense Department for top-level talks.
China has attributed its refusal to restart military communications to sanctions imposed by Washington, a possible reference to sanctions on Chinese Defense Minister Li.
The sanctions were part of a package of measures against Russia, predating its invasion of Ukraine, imposed in 2018 over Mr. Li’s involvement in China’s purchase of combat aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles from Moscow.
“The U.S. side is surely aware of why there is difficulty in military-to-military exchanges,” Yang Tao, a Chinese Foreign Ministry official overseeing North American affairs, said at a press briefing following Mr. Blinken’s visit to Beijing last month.
“One of the reasons is unilateral sanctions against the Chinese side,” said Mr. Yang. “They first need to remove impediments and create conditions for military-to-military cooperation.”
• This story is based in part on wire service reports.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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