Why China still refuses to resume military dialogue with US, despite Antony Blinken’s latest appeal

Mainland defence analysts said Beijing is still concerned that the US will continue to undermine what it sees as its ‘core interests’ on issues such as Taiwan

The US Secretary of State met top leaders in Beijing this week, but was unable to secure agreement on resuming communications between the two militaries

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A close encounter between US and Chinese warships, which Washington described as “unsafe”. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:59pm, 20 Jun 2023Updated: 9:23am, 21 Jun 2023

China snubbed requests by the United States to resume military dialogue between the two countries because it is not satisfied that Washington will stop violating its “core interests” on issues such as Taiwan, mainland military analysts have said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters at the end of his two-day visit to Beijing on Monday that Chinese leaders have not agreed to the repeated requests by the American side for a dialogue to reduce the risk of military misunderstandings or miscalculations.

“That imperative, I think, was only underscored by recent incidents that we saw in the air and on the seas. And at this moment, China has not agreed to move forward with that,” Blinken said.

The Pentagon recently accused Chinese fighter jets and warships of “unsafe” and “unprofessional” interceptions when shadowing US forces in the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait.

“If we agree that it’s in our mutual interests to make sure that the competitive aspects of the relationship don’t veer into conflict, then surely we can agree and see the need for making sure that the channels of communication that we’ve both said are necessary to do that include military-to-military channels,” he added.

Blinken’s remarks indicated that Washington wanted to “secure the absolute prevention and avoidance of military conflict” but still continue to challenge China’s “core interests”, said Shi Yinhong, an international relations professor at Beijing’s Renmin University.