The United States on Tuesday said it will keep asking China to open more military communication channels to defuse rising tensions between their countries, despite that request being rebuffed during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing over the weekend.
Sarah Beran, White House National Security Council senior director for China and Taiwan Affairs, said establishing military-to-military communications was essential to reduce frictions between the two global powers.
“This is an absolutely critical way for us to manage competition, crisis communication, ensure that there is no miscommunication or misperception about each other’s intentions,” Beran told reporters in a digital briefing about the trip. “We remain willing and able at all levels to meet and call on China to respond appropriately to that.”
At the same briefing call on Tuesday, Daniel Kritenbrink, the US State Department’s top diplomat for East Asia, said successful and responsible management of the US-China relationship will only be possible if it is a “two-way street.”
Asserting that all bilateral problems were caused by one party “simply doesn’t reflect reality,” Kritenbrink said.
The most concrete result of Blinken’s trip — in which he met with China’s President Xi Jinping — was a commitment to more diplomatic engagements with further high-level US visits in coming months, including possible trips by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.
During the first visit to China by a US Secretary of State since 2018, the nations agreed to temper rivalries to avoid conflict, but there were no breakthroughs.
China cited US sanctions as an obstacle to military dialogue, which Blinken said he had repeatedly raised with his hosts and would continue to push for.
Chinese defense minister Li Shangfu has been sanctioned since 2018 over the purchase of combat aircraft and equipment from Russia’s main arms exporter, Rosoboronexport.
The lack of open channels between both nations has prompted international jitters, with Beijing’s reluctance to engage in regular military-to-military talks with Washington alarming China’s neighbors.
At one of the most significant US-China exchanges since President Joe Biden took office, the two sides appeared entrenched over several issues, from Taiwan to trade — including US actions toward China’s microchip industry — plus human rights and Russia’s war against Ukraine. AFP with Rey Requejo
Earlier this month, China’s Minister of National Defence Li Shangfu declined an invitation to meet US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at the Shangri-La security summit.
Both President Xi, who met Blinken on Monday at the end of his 11 hours of talks in Beijing, and President Biden saluted the long-awaited trip as a sign of progress following months of soaring tensions.
“It was clear coming in that the relationship was at a point of instability, and both sides recognized the need to work to stabilize it,” Blinken told reporters in Beijing.
US officials have repeatedly spoken of expanding communication to establish “guardrails” in the relationship to prevent misunderstandings from descending into conflict.
But Blinken acknowledged that the United States did not achieve one ofits wishes most crucial to avoiding miscalculations — a resumption ofdialogue between the two militaries.
China’s top diplomat, Wang Yi, told Blinken that on Taiwan there was“no room to compromise or concede” by Beijing, which has carried outmilitary drills twice since August including after a defiant visit toTaipei by Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the House of Representatives.
Bonnie Glaser, a China expert at the German Marshall Fund of theUnited States, said Beijing was increasingly on guard as Taiwan approaches elections next year and that Blinken’s remarks sounded like “boilerplate placeholders.”
“The two sides have basically agreed to explore the possibility ofstabilizing the bilateral relationship. There is no certainty theywill achieve that goal,” she said. AFP with Rey Requejo
