The Pentagon said it hoped the resumption of direct military talks this week after a lengthy freeze will help prevent conflict with China, as People’s Liberation Army officials demanded a reduction in U.S. military operations in the South China Sea. But the relatively low level of representation from both sides signaled the exchanges have not yet returned to prior levels of engagement.
The two days of talks that ended Tuesday were led on the U.S. side by Michael Chase, deputy assistant defense secretary for China, Taiwan and Mongolia. PLA Maj. Gen. Song Yanchao, deputy director of the Central Military Commission’s international military cooperation office, led the Chinese delegation.
China halted military talks and exchanges in August 2022 to protest the visit to Taiwan by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The cancellation was followed by the largest military war games around Taiwan that Pentagon officials said appeared to be practice for a future military operation.
Since the cutoff, the Biden administration has sought to restart the talks seen as crucial to preventing an unexpected military encounter from spiraling into a larger conflict. But China’s Defense Ministry said in a statement that the U.S. military must first embrace China’s “concerns” and do more to promote military ties.
China wants an end to U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and will not make “any concession or compromise on the Taiwan question,” the statement said. Beijing also wants U.S. military forces to curb “presence and provocation in the South China Sea” and end support to the Philippines over the disputed Spratly Islands.
“The Chinese side underscored that the U.S. side should fully recognize the root cause of maritime and air security issues, strictly discipline its troops on the ground, and stop manipulating and hyping-up relevant issues,” the statement said.
Chinese officials at the talks outlined preconditions for better ties. They include calls for the U.S. to accept Beijing’s “core interests” — seen as code for not undermining the ruling Chinese Communist Party — and to dial back criticism of China over global “hot spots,” likely a reference to Chinese political support for Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Few details on the meeting were made public by the Pentagon. Officials familiar with past sessions said such meetings are generally unproductive and follow similar patterns of each side repeating a set of well-known talking points.
Gen. Song leads the PLA’s foreign military relations programs. He is considered what officials say is Beijing’s top “barbarian handler.”
Mr. Chase stressed the need for open lines of military-to-military communications “in order to prevent competition from veering into conflict,” said Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Martin Meiners in a statement after the talks. Mr. Chase also raised Pentagon concerns about aggressive and dangerous Chinese aerial incidents related to U.S. military aircraft, and concerns about U.S.-China maritime encounters, according to a readout of the talks.
Mr. Chase “underscored the importance of respect for high seas freedom of navigation guaranteed under international law in light of repeated PRC harassment against lawfully operating Philippine vessels in the South China Sea,” Col. Meiners said.
Mr. Chase also stressed the importance of maintaining peace and stability across the 100-mile Taiwan Strait amid growing military operations by China around the island. Pentagon officials have said the PLA activities around Taiwan, most recently including sending surveillance balloons over the island, are designed to coerce and intimidate the island democracy, which is holding presidential elections on Saturday.
The PLA also is demanding that U.S. military deployments and “provocative action” in the South China Sea be halted and to stop supporting “certain countries” the Chinese believe are infringing its territory, a reference to growing tensions between China and the Philippines over the Spratly Islands.
The “U.S.-China defense policy coordination talks,” as the discussions are formally known, were the first to be held at the Pentagon in several years. The talks followed President Biden’s November meeting in California with Chinese President Xi Jinping who agreed to resume military talks.
A senior defense official said the talks sought to set up a schedule for military-to-military exchanges for the rest of 2024, but no details of the upcoming exchanges were disclosed.
The defense official said the U.S. side was “clear-eyed” about the meeting and overall utility of the talks. China has a history of canceling defense exchanges to send political messages of displeasure over events like the Pelosi visit to Taiwan or announcements of arms sales to Taiwan, the official said.
Beijing also in the past refused to take calls from U.S. officials during military incidents of heightened tension. The past actions show “a historical pattern and something that we’ve experienced as recently as during the high altitude balloon incident” in early 2023, the official said.
• Bill Gertz can be reached at bgertz@washingtontimes.com.
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