Ice-breaking direct US-China military talks a ‘good step’ but serious disputes remain
- Discussions will not resolve ‘hardcore’ geopolitical issues like Taiwan and the South China Sea but could help avoid crisis, experts say
- Military communication lines were restored after leaders of China and the US met in November
“It was a significant step towards restoring relations between the two militaries,” said Wu Xinbo, director of the American Studies Centre at Fudan University in Shanghai. The discussions would not resolve “hardcore” geopolitical disagreements over Taiwan and the South China Sea but could help to avoid a crisis, he said.
The US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles “CQ” Brown, talked with China’s General Liu Zhenli for the first time on Thursday via video link. The Chinese defence ministry said Liu, the chief of the Joint Staff Department, had raised those contentious issues, while Washington said they discussed unspecified global and regional security issues.
The joint staff chiefs of China and the US last met 17 months ago in July 2022. Their defence ministers, who outrank the joint staff chiefs, last met in November 2022, three months after Nancy Pelosi travelled to Taiwan. Infuriated by the visit, Beijing then halted calls between theatre commanders, as well as defence policy meetings and maritime safety discussions.
Those communication lines were restored after Chinese President Xi Jinping met his counterpart Joe Biden near San Francisco on November 15.
Pelosi, then US speaker of the House, had led a US delegation to Taiwan to show support for the island’s democracy. Beijing described the trip as US support for the Taiwanese independence movement.
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On the call on Thursday, Liu put the onus of improving US-China military ties on Washington, saying it was key for the US to “understand China correctly” and respect China’s “core interests and major concerns”, according to the defence ministry.
