OpinionUS Defence Secretary Jim Mattis’ visit to Beijing did little to soothe tensions
Mattis didn’t shy away from confronting the nations’ differences, but the US still lacks an effective way to alter China’s behaviour
Six months after overseeing the release of the Trump administration’s National Defence Strategy – a document that identified China as a revisionist power and competitor of the United States – Jim Mattis went to China.
The US defence secretary’s trip was never going to be a walk in that park, at least not in the way trips to China often had been for his predecessors.
Mattis opened June by vocally condemning China’s militarisation of features in the South China Sea before Asia-Pacific security and defense elites gathered at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
In May, in retaliation for China’s decision to place missiles on the disputed Spratly Islands and land an H-6K bomber on Woody Island, the United States also decided to withdraw its invitation for China to take part in this summer’s biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) multilateral naval exercises.
But as Mattis landed in China, his objective was modest: he had come to talk and, in his own words, to ensure that the US-China relationship remain on “a great trajectory, going in the right direction.”