China’s US envoy makes rare Pentagon meeting

China’s ambassador to
the United States held a rare meeting at the Pentagon on
Wednesday with the top U.S. defense official for Asia, the
Pentagon said, in talks that followed U.S. criticism of Chinese
reluctance to engage in military communications.
A brief Pentagon statement said Chinese Ambassador Xie Feng
discussed defense relations and “a range of international and
regional security issues” in talks with Ely Ratner, a U.S.
assistant secretary of defense.
“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 program at the Stimson
Center, said the meeting was “quite unusual.”
“The Chinese ambassador does not often meet with U.S.
senior defense officials,” Sun said. “It suggests China is at
least responding to US concerns, but the actual progress still
requires time and negotiations.”
With U.S.-China relations at a low over national security
issues, including Taiwan, U.S. 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.
U.S. 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 traveled to Beijing
last month, the first trip to China by a U.S. secretary of state
since 2018.
But Beijing snubbed U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s
efforts to hold an in-depth meeting with his Chinese counterpart
at a defense 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 July 10.
China has publicly cited U.S. sanctions as an obstacle to
military dialogue. Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu has been
sanctioned since 2018 over the purchase of combat aircraft and
equipment from Russia’s main arms exporter, Rosoboronexport.
But Kahl said in London that China appeared to be concerned
that Washington was going to use crisis management channels “so
we can have more crises”.
“When we have these conversations with them, they’re like:
‘If you don’t want crises, there’s a simple answer … Get out.
Like, you’re not a Pacific power,” Kahl said, adding that was a
strange thing to hear as someone from the Pacific coast state of
California.
Sun said Beijing was unlikely to accept a defense
minister-level meeting with Austin unless Washington addresses
the sanction on Li.
“Some have argued that the Li-Austin meeting would be a
prerequisite for working-level mil-to-mil to resume. It doesn’t
have to be, but it makes sense given the protocol,” Sun said.