Pentagon Chief Unable to Set Up Talks with China’s Top General Despite Multiple Attempts

Tensions have mounted between the militaries of the world’s two largest economies, in part thanks to increased US military activity in sensitive areas like the South China Sea. The United States frequently dispatches warships to patrol the disputed waters and sends spy planes on missions near China’s coast.

In an attempt to preempt a spiraling conflict, however, US military officials have long sought to keep lines of communications open with the Chinese military.

“The military relationship is strained, no question about that. It’s hard to know how much this is reflective of that strain as much as it is just Chinese intransigence,” a US defense official told Reuters.

"But we certainly want to have a dialogue. We just want to make sure we have a dialogue at the proper level,” the official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, added.

A second US official told Reuters that the Joe Biden administration was debating whether Austin should speak with Vice Chairman of China’s Central Military Commission, Xu Qiliang, or Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe.

US officials told the Financial Times that the Pentagon chief had already made three requests to speak with Xu, who is seen as having more power and influence with Chinese President Xi Jinping, but the requests have gone unanswered.

Beijing has regularly criticized Biden’s administration for its bellicose rhetoric toward China, which echoes the policy of his predecessor, Donald Trump.

In his first address to Congress, President Biden said the US was in competition with China to “win the 21st century”.

Biden also said that he told his Chinese counterpart of a US plan to militarize the Indo-Pacific “just as we do with NATO in Europe”.

The Pentagon has also labeled China as the top “pacing threat” facing the US military.

While there have not been high-level military talks between the two sides since Biden took office in January, top Chinese and American diplomats have since held talks. But those talks have yielded no diplomatic breakthroughs.

In March, Secretary of State Antony Blinken opened the talks during a meeting with senior Chines diplomats by accusing Beijing of threatening the “rules-based order”.

China called the United States a “risk creator” in the South China Sea this week, after an American warship -- the USS Curtis Wilbur, sailed through Chinese territorial waters near the disputed Spratly Islands.

China has constantly warned the US against its military activities in the sea, saying that potential close military encounters between the air and naval forces of the two countries in the region could trigger accidents.