Why US push for high-level military talks with China is getting nowhere for now

Name: China, US offer competing security visions for Asia-Pacific at security forum
Uploaded: 2023-06-08T14:00:15.000Z
Duration: 3 min 45 s
Description: China, US offer competing security visions for Asia-Pacific at security forum

While Washington sees better communications with Beijing as key to reducing the risk in potential flashpoints, analysts say Beijing has different priorities

China has cited sanctions on its new defence minister as a reason for turning down talks, but has urged the US to stop ‘provocations’ in sensitive areas

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US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Shangri-La dialogue in Singapore, where he did not secure a meeting with China’s defence minister. Photo: EPA-EFE

Amber Wangin Beijing

Published: 10:00pm, 8 Jun 2023Updated: 10:53pm, 8 Jun 2023

The United States is more concerned than China about the lack of high-level military communications because it believes that is one of the keys to reducing the risk of accidents and misjudgments in potential flashpoints such as the Taiwan Strait, military analysts have said.

Beijing, by contrast, believes that US actions are to blame for recent incidents – such as a close encounter between two warships – but existing communications channels can still prevent things spiralling out of control.

The US has been pushing for the resumption of regular high-level communications between the two militaries, but has been rebuffed, most recently at the Shangri-la dialogue in Singapore, where the two countries’ defence ministers exchanged no more than a handshake despite sitting at the same table at a dinner.

The two countries recently exchanged barbs after the two ships came within 140 metres (150 yards) of each other in the Taiwan Strait, days after a similar close encounter between two warplanes in the South China Sea.

The US blamed “unsafe and unprofessional” manoeuvres from the People’s Liberation Army Navy for the Taiwan Strait incident, but China said it viewed some patrols as a provocation.

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China, US offer competing security visions for Asia-Pacific at security forum

Hu Bo, director of the Centre for Maritime Strategy Studies at Peking University, said there is “no doubt that the risks of miscalculation between the two militaries are increasing”, but high-level communications are mainly for solving “strategic issues” rather than “tactical issues” such as the recent close encounters.