Pentagon to send defence officials to China’s Xiangshan security forum in hopes of restarting communication
- Chinese media says delegation will be led by Xanthi Carras from the US defence department
- Washington hopes to end freeze with opportunities to kick-start upcoming talks, including potential Biden-Xi summit
Without naming specific American officials, Michael Chase, deputy assistant secretary of defence for China, said the Pentagon planned “to send participants at a level that’s consistent with what we’ve done in the past”.
“In terms of hopefully … kick-starting some of the military-to-military engagements, yes, I’m hopeful that we’ll have an opportunity to do that in the coming months,” he said during a discussion at the Atlantic Council on Monday.
China sacks missing defence chief Li Shangfu with no explanation
Asked about the report shortly after its release last week, Liu Pengyu, spokesman for Beijing’s embassy in Washington, said the Pentagon was “hyping up various versions of the ‘China threat’ narrative and making groundless allegations and smears towards China”.
“This is not a set of individual rogue pilots doing this and we have various reasons to believe that, including just a pattern of behaviour, which has been relatively constant and quite worrisome,” Ratner said.
“We understand that they have ambitions to drive the United States out of the region … [and] an interest in driving wedges between the United States and our allies and partners.”
“Those meetings are coming up again next month, and we’ll look forward to potential opportunities there.”
China’s rise does not make it America’s competitor, Pentagon official says
While dialogue with China languishes, Ratner said the Pentagon has stepped up its engagement with other countries in the Indo-Pacific about how to counter the activity detailed in the China military power report.
“What we have been doing across the board with both high end and less developed partners is helping them think through what are the types of … asymmetric capabilities and investments that would be useful for them, to help them defend their own national interests, their own sovereignty,” Ratner said.