The Pentagon is still seeking to restart talks and military-to-military exchanges with China cut off by Beijing last year, but so far the effort has failed to temper mounting animosity toward the American military by the People’s Liberation Army.
Chinese state media announced last week that “relevant countries” would join a major international conference of foreign militaries, including representatives from the U.S. military. Military and defense officials from Russia, Britain, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Fiji also are attending.
The Xiangshan Forum began Sunday without Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu, who was formally ousted last week by the Chinese Communist Party after going missing for several weeks. No reason was given for the dismissal, which coincided with the removal of three generals linked to the PLA Rocket Forces, the strategic nuclear force.
The Pentagon dispatched a relatively low-level official to the forum. Cynthia Carras, principal director for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia at the Pentagon is the most senior official at the meeting which includes many senior foreign military chiefs and officials.
Army Lt. Col. Martin Meiners, a Pentagon spokesman, said the level of representation by the Defense Department at the meeting is consistent with past precedent.
“The department welcomes the opportunity to engage with PLA representatives at the Xiangshan Forum on ensuring open and reliable lines of communication, ensuring crisis communications channels, reducing strategic and operational risk, and avoiding misperceptions,” Col. Meiners said, noting that Ms. Carras did not plan to speak to news reporters in Beijing.
China halted military exchanges at all levels with the Biden administration in August 2022 following the visit to Taiwan by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The Chinese military announced after the visit that it was halting dialogue with the United States among regional commanders, and on defense policy coordination and military maritime safety. Non-military talks on returning illegal immigrants, criminal issues, illegal drugs and climate change also were put on hold.
The Chinese Communist Party has accused the United States of promoting Taiwanese pro-independence forces, charges the State Department has denied.
Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Wu Qian said last week that China “attaches great importance to the development of military-to-military relations between China and the United States.”
“As we see it, the ranks of the personnel taking part in the exchanges are not the most important. What is more important are the contents of the exchanges,” Col. Wu said.
But efforts by the commander of military forces in Asia, Adm. John Aquilino to meet or talk with his counterparts so have been rebuffed by the PLA.
“I’ve asked to speak with my counterparts, the eastern and southern theater commanders, now going on two and a half years. I have yet to have one of those requests accepted,” Adm. Aquilino, commander of the Indo-Pacific Command, said Oct. 17.
Those commands run PLA operations in the East China and South China Seas, where U.S. and Chinese warships and aircraft have frequently engaged in contentious encounters.
A spokesman for the Indo-Pacific Command declined to answer when asked if the command sent any personnel to the forum, and referred further questions to the Pentagon.
A U.S. Navy captain, possibly a military attache, was photographed in Chinese state media in one session at the forum, but was not identified by name.
The U.S. has actively sought more direct and closer military-to-military ties with Beijing, believing that such exchanges build trust. Yet for more than two decades, the Chinese military has refused to communicate with American military or defense leaders in times of crisis.
In 2001, the PLA ignored Pentagon attempts at communications after a Chinese jet fighter collided with an American EP-3 surveillance aircraft flying near the South China Sea.
In February, Chinese defense leaders again refused calls from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after an Air Force jet shot down an intruding Chinese high-altitude balloon over the Atlantic after it had traversed much of the continental U.S.
Mr. Austin also was rebuffed when he sought a meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Li, at a recent security conference in Singapore.
Winning concessions
Critics say the Biden administration is too eager for military exchanges with Beijing. The push for communications, they argue, can be used by Beijing to wrest concessions on other issues, such as curbing surveillance flights or reducing defense support for Taiwan.
For example, Beijing demanded that the U.S. government remove sanctions that had been placed on Defense Minister Gen. Li Shangfu for his role in buying weapons from Russia before any meeting with Mr. Lloyd could be possible.
Retired Navy Capt. Jim Fanell said sending defense officials to the Xiangshan Forum is aimed at promoting the administration’s ideological agenda of unfettered engagement with China.
Capt. Fanell said Biden officials hailed the removal of Gen. Li, who disappeared for weeks and was formally ousted last week, believing it removed an obstacle for renewed direct military-to-military ties with China.
“With Li gone, the ‘engagers’ within the Biden team are arguing that there are no longer any hurdles to deeper exchanges in the military arena with the PLA and will lower the overall tensions with the PRC, thus improving the safety and security within the Asia-Pacific region,” Capt. Fanell said. “Unfortunately, this pollyannaish view is not supported by the facts.”
Capt. Fanell noted that in the few days after Gen. Li’s firing was announced, a PLA fighter aircraft dangerously intercepted a B-52 bomber, flying within 10 feet of the aircraft in what he described as “an act of gross irresponsibility and immense danger.”
The bomber incident followed the recent briefing by senior Pentagon and military officials of what was described as a systematic campaign of more than 180 dangerous aerial intercepts of U.S. surveillance aircraft by Chinese craft just in the past two years.
“These daily acts of military aggression all demonstrate that the U.S. would be wise to stop the pandering to the Chinese Communist Party and stand firm against their schemes to displace the U.S. from Asia and thus threaten America’s national security and those of our allies,” Capt. Fanell said.
The Pentagon’s latest annual report on the Chinese military said of bilateral military exchanges in 2022 that “the PLA largely denied, canceled and ignored recurring bilateral engagements and DoD requests for communication.”
The stonewalling has continued in 2023, the report said.
“The PLA’s refusal to engage in military-to-military communications with the United States, combined with the PLA’s increasingly coercive and risky operational behavior, raises the risk of an operational incident or miscalculation spiraling into crisis or conflict,” the report stated.
The Pentagon wants to reopen communications over concerns the current tensions do not “veer into conflict.”
The department’s goals for communications with the PLA include developing crisis communications channels, as well as strategic and operational risk reduction measures. It also seeks to clarify misperceptions by the Chinese.
Pointed rhetoric
Chinese military rhetoric and propaganda have become increasingly sharp toward the United States, according to a review of official military publications and statements by military officials. China has accused the U.S. military of causing the COVID-19 pandemic. The Beijing government also has accused the CIA of fomenting internal unrest in China.
Chinese textbooks also state that the United States is the country’s main capitalist enemy and that a future conflict is likely.
A Chinese Foreign Ministry report last year called the United States the “most belligerent country in the history of the world.” The report also accused the United States of engaging in “financial hegemony” and “economic coercion in the name of protecting national security.”
Biden administration’s calls for China to abide by the Western-established rules-based international order have also been rejected. “The ‘rules-based international order’ championed by the U.S. is in fact another version of power politics,” the report said.
On U.S. military efforts to maintain freedom in the Indo-Pacific region, the ministry called it “essentially a strategy to divide others, incite confrontation and undermine peace. It runs counter to the trend of the times in the Asia-Pacific, i.e., the trend of peaceful development and win-win cooperation.”
In the South China Sea, the American military is described by China as “the biggest force undermining stability and fueling militarization.”
Oriana Skylar Mastro, a pro-engagement China analyst with Stanford University and the American Enterprise Institute, said on social media that she looked forward to attending the forum. Ms. Mastro, a reserve Air Force officer, said she planned to speak on a panel during the forum on “artificial intelligence security.”
“My talk will focus on AI’s rapid expansion, global security risks and strategies for ethical use under this year’s theme ‘Common Security & Lasting Peace,’” she stated in a tweet.
The state-affiliated Global Times said the three-day conference began Sunday at the Beijing International Convention Center. The outlet reported that with current international tensions, the forum permitted representatives from more than 90 nations, regions and international organizations to hold “frank” discussions.
More than 30 “ministerial representatives and military chiefs” are participating, the Chinese Defense Ministry said.
The forum held a symposium on Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” which is said to be a guide for Chinese military leaders. One tenant of the ancient text is for militaries to seek ways to subdue enemies without resorting to military force.
The outlet said the forum “is expected to comprehensively implement the concept of a global community of a shared future.”
The concept is part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ideological program to promote the Chinese communist system called the Global Security Initiative.
Alessio Patalano, professor of war and strategy in East Asia at King’s College London, told the news website that the forum is needed based on the wars underway in Ukraine and the Middle East.
Mr. Patalano said, “It’s very important to be here to start redeveloping and reestablishing personal links with colleagues, scholars and officials in China.”
PLA Sr. Col. Zhao Xiaozhuo, deputy director of the Xiangshan Forum, said the forum allows for communication among nations engaged in conflict.
PLA Gen. He Weidong, vice chairman of the CCP’s Central Military Commission, met defense ministers from Vietnam, Laos and Mongolia who were attending the forum, state media reported.
The CMC vice chairman is one of the most senior PLA leaders and, unlike the Chinese defense minister, is part of the military chain of command.
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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