WASHINGTON: China’s ambassador to the United States held a rare meeting at the Pentagon on Wednesday (Jul 12) with the top US defence official for Asia, the Pentagon said, in talks that followed US criticism of Chinese reluctance to engage in military communications.
A brief Pentagon statement said Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng discussed defence relations and “a range of international and regional security issues” in talks with Ely Ratner, a US assistant secretary of defence.
“Ratner also underscored the Department’s commitment to maintaining open lines of military-to-military communication between the United States and the PRC,” Pentagon spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Martin Meiners said, using the acronym for China’s official name.
The discussions lasted about 90 minutes, Meiners said.
China’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Yun Sun, director of the China programme at the Stimson Center, said the meeting was “quite unusual”.
“The Chinese ambassador does not often meet with US senior defence officials,” Sun said. “It suggests China is at least responding to US concerns, but the actual progress still requires time and negotiations.”
With US-China relations at a low over national security issues, including Taiwan, US export bans on advanced technologies and China’s state-led industrial policies, Washington has been trying to repair ties between the world’s two biggest economies.
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen visited China earlier this month and climate envoy John Kerry is expected to visit next week. Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled to Beijing last month, the first trip to China by a US secretary of state since 2018.
But Beijing snubbed US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s efforts to hold an in-depth meeting with his Chinese counterpart at a defence forum in Singapore last month, and military communications have stalled.
“We have regularly reached out to thicken our crisis communications and crisis management channels with Beijing and they have serially pushed us off,” Colin Kahl, the Pentagon’s top policy adviser, told a forum in London on Jul 10.
Source: CNA
