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.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS