US-China military dialogue resumes for first time in over a year as top American officer talks with counterpart
- The video call between US General CQ Brown and China’s General Liu Zhenli is first senior military communication between countries since August 2022
- Focus will be on restoring US-China relations to the condition they were in before ‘spy balloon saga’ and Nancy Pelosi’s Taiwan visit, says expert
Air Force General CQ Brown, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with his Chinese counterpart General Liu Zhenli via videoconference on Thursday in a step towards restoring military-to-military dialogue between the two global powers, the Pentagon has announced.
The talks mark the first senior military communication between Washington and Beijing since the Chinese government halted all such engagements in response to then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August 2022.
They followed a meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in San Francisco last month at which resumption of military dialogues was a major area of discussion.
On Thursday, the two military leaders “discussed the importance of working together to responsibly manage competition, avoid miscalculations, and maintain open and direct lines of communication”, the Pentagon said in a statement.
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Brown “reiterated the importance of the People’s Liberation Army engaging in substantive dialogue to reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings”, it added.
The US side also “reaffirmed” the importance of resuming the bilateral Defense Policy Coordination Talks, Military Maritime Consultative Agreement talks, and “opening lines of communication between the Commander of United States Indo-Pacific Command and the commanders of the PLA Eastern and Southern Theater Commands”.
Washington has accused Beijing of “coercive and risky operational behaviour” against US assets over the East and South China seas in recent months
In October, the Pentagon released declassified images and videos of PLA jets discharging chaff or shooting off flares while approaching very near to US aircraft at high speeds.
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In a statement on Thursday, the Chinese defence ministry said that General Liu called on the US to “earnestly respect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea”.
He said the US needed to “be cautious in its words and deeds, and take practical actions to safeguard regional peace and stability and the overall interests” of the relationship.
“The Chinese military will resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity”, he warned Brown, emphasising that Taiwan was “purely” China’s internal matter.
Zongyuan Zoe Liu of the Council on Foreign Relations called the meeting an important “incremental step” in repairing US-China ties.
“I don’t think it’s a major breakthrough”, she said, adding that “it’s simply restore and repair” relations to the state they were at “before the spy balloon and Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan”.
Zoe noted that the challenges ahead included “who is going to lead on both sides”, particularly because “there is no defence minister” on China’s side.
Chinese defence minister Li Shangfu was formally dismissed from his position in October. Beijing has yet to announce a replacement.
Reuters has reported that General Liu could be the top contender for the job.
“Even if these talks mean that military dialogues are no longer frozen, they are likely still icy, exhibited in the time it took for talks to resume,” Bill Drexel of the Centre for a New American Security said.
He noted that while the talks reduce the chances for miscommunication, the severe disagreements between the two nations that “drive China’s risky military behaviour remain”.
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“Beijing knows that Washington is much more invested in dialogue than it is, and may simply use the resumption of these talks as a bargaining chip for its own ends with little intention to make substantive progress,” Drexel said.
The Biden administration moved to normalise relations with Beijing this year through several visits to the Chinese capital by officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The diplomatic effort culminated in the Biden-Xi meeting last month. During their talks, the two leaders reached agreements on fentanyl trafficking, artificial intelligence and resumption of military communications.
According to David Logan of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, the resumption of military dialogue was a “sign that each side is following through on those commitments”.
He said, though, that Beijing’s statement on the meeting indicated that “China’s willingness to use these channels may still be subject to the overall state of the bilateral relationship and, in particular, how China views US actions toward cross-strait relations”.
