US-China defense talks stalled two months after Biden-Xi meeting

Bloomberg

The Pentagon is struggling to get China to resume military-to-military talks, according to a senior US defense official, underscoring continuing tensions between the two sides despite last year’s meeting between Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping.
China cut off talks with the US on military, climate change and other issues after then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August. A November meeting between Biden and Xi in Indonesia prompted climate discussions to resume, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe in Cambodia later that month.
Since then, however, Beijing has rebuffed attempts to establish regular communication over defense issues crucial to preventing a potential crisis, according to the official.
The official, who asked not to be identified discussing sensitive issues, added that the People’s Liberation Army has generally become more reckless toward US and allied partners in the South China Sea as it increases its military capacity, directing chaff toward other planes and having its ships cut across the bows of foreign vessels.
China’s Ministry of Defense did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside of regular office hours.
US officials have long said regular communication between Chinese and American defense personnel is key to preventing mishaps from escalating into conflict. But Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Tan Kefei last month said Washington needed to stop “constantly harming China’s interests” before that could happen.
Those remarks followed passage of the US National Defense Authorization Act, which approved up to $10 billion in weapons sales to Taiwan, the self-governing island that Beijing views as its territory. China’s Defense Ministry blasted the legislation as interference in the country’s internal affairs.
The US has also angered Beijing by ramping up efforts to block China from accessing cutting-edge semiconductor technology recently.