US and Chinese defense officials this week met to discuss unsafe and aggressive ship and aircraft incidents between the two militaries in the Pacific region for the first time in nearly two years, restarting a dialogue that Beijing abruptly ended after a dispute involving Taiwan.
The meeting on Wednesday and Thursday in Hawaii came as Washington and Beijing work to expand communications between the two world powers and ease escalating tensions.
Military-to-military contact had stalled in August 2022, when Beijing suspended all such communication after then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
Photo: AFP
The thaw in relations between the countries got a boost in November last year when US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met on the sidelines of the APEC summit in San Francisco. About a month later, US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Air Force General Charles Brown spoke with his Chinese counterpart in a video call — in the first senior military-to-military contact since the Pelosi visit.
The resurgence of senior military leader discussions includes the relaunch of routine engagements, including the China-US Military Maritime Consultative Agreement meeting, which was this week in Hawaii, and the bilateral Defense Policy Coordination Talks, which were held earlier this year.
The maritime meeting focused on unsafe and unprofessional incidents involving the US and Chinese militaries while the coordination talks focus on broader policy issues.
It included personnel from the US Indo-Pacific Command, US Pacific Fleet, US Pacific Air Forces and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). This is the first time since 2019 that the meeting was held in person.
According to officials, this week’s meeting included about 18 senior military and civilian officials from each side.
The US and China delegations each brought up specific incidents over the past several years that they believe raised operational safety concerns.
“Open, direct and clear communications with the PLA — and with all other military forces in the region — is of utmost importance to avoid accidents and miscommunication,” the head of the US delegation, US Army Colonel Ian Francis said in a statement.
Francis, who is the director for Northeast Asia policy at the US Indo-Pacific Command, said the US is encouraged that the PLA is honoring its commitments to the maritime agreement.
Two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because the meetings are private, said that they have seen a reduction in the number of unsafe incidents by Chinese military aircraft and ships over the past several months.
The meeting was a way to make sure that the trend continues and that overall safety is increased in the region for troops who operate there, they said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
RSS