US-Chinese military talks resume on safety in the air and at sea after a nearly 2-year break
WASHINGTON — For the first time in nearly two years, U.S. and Chinese defense officials met this week to discuss unsafe and aggressive shipping and aircraft incidents between the two militaries in the Pacific, resuming a dialogue that Beijing abruptly ended in a dispute involving Taiwan .
The meeting, which took place in Hawaii from Tuesday to Thursday, came as Washington and Beijing worked to expand communications between the two world powers and defuse escalating tensions. Military-to-military contact had come to a standstill in August 2022, when Beijing suspended all such communications following then-Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, the self-governing island that China claims as its own .
The thaw in relations between the two countries got a kick-start last November when US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in San Francisco. About a month later, Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with his Chinese counterpart in a video call — in the first senior military-to-military contact since Pelosi’s visit.
Other top-level talks have continued, including a phone call earlier this week between Biden and Xi, and a visit to China by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that began Thursday.
The revival of discussions among senior military leaders includes the relaunch of routine engagements, including the China-US Military Maritime Consultative Agreement meeting, which took place in Hawaii this week, and the bilateral defense policy coordination talks, which took place earlier this year were maintained.
The maritime meeting focuses on unsafe and unprofessional incidents involving the U.S. and Chinese militaries, while the coordination talks focus on broader policy issues. This week’s meeting included personnel from the Indo-Pacific Command, the US Pacific Fleet, the US Pacific Air Forces and the People’s Liberation Army. This is the first time since 2019 that the meeting has taken place in person; there was a virtual meeting in 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
About 18 senior military and civilian officials from both sides were present at this week’s meeting, officials said. The US and Chinese delegations each raised several specific incidents over the past year that they believed raised operational security concerns, and the group discussed them.
“Open, direct and clear communication with the PLA – and with all other military forces in the region – is paramount to avoid mishaps and miscommunication,” the head of the US delegation, Army Col. Ian Francis, said in a statement. .
Francis, director for Northeast Asia policy at the US Indo-Pacific Command, said the US is encouraged that the People’s Liberation Army is meeting its commitments to the maritime agreement.
Two U.S. officials said they have seen a decline in unsafe incidents by Chinese military aircraft and ships in recent months. They said the meeting was a way to ensure that the trend continues and that overall security in the region is increased for the troops operating there. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the meetings are private.
The US has consistently viewed military communications with China as crucial to prevent any missteps between its forces and maintain a peaceful Indo-Pacific.
Pelosi became the highest-ranking US lawmaker to visit Taiwan since 1997, when then-Speaker Newt Gingrich traveled there. Her visit sparked a wave of military maneuvers by China. Beijing sent warships and aircraft across the median line in the Taiwan Strait, claiming the de facto border did not exist, fired missiles over Taiwan itself and challenged established norms by firing missiles into Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone Japan.
Over the next two years, U.S. military officials repeatedly objected to a series of unsafe interceptions by Chinese aircraft in the Pacific and other dangerous incidents.
Last October, the Pentagon released images of some of the more than 180 interceptions of U.S. fighter jets by Chinese aircraft over the past two years. And military officials said the number was more than the total over the past decade — a trend they called worrying. Last year, a Chinese pilot flew within 10 feet of a U.S. Air Force B-52 conducting routine operations over the South China Sea in international airspace.
China’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, has criticized the US for what it calls interference in both Taiwan and the South China Sea, accusing US arms sales to Taiwan of making the situation more dangerous.