Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with Gen. Wei Fenghe, the minister of national defense of the People’s Republic of China, on Tuesday on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Defense Ministers Meeting-Plus in Siem Reap, Cambodia.
The two defense leaders spoke for roughly 90 minutes for the first time since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) traveled to Taiwan in what became a major source of friction between the two adversarial countries. The relationship between China and the United States has continued to fissure from disagreements on issues, including Taiwan, alleged human rights abuses toward minorities in China, and China’s continued military expansion and aggression in the region.
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“Secretary Austin emphasized the need to responsibly manage competition and maintain open lines of communication,” Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a readout of the meeting. “The Secretary also discussed the importance of substantive dialogue on reducing strategic risk, improving crisis communications, and enhancing operational safety. He raised concerns about the increasingly dangerous behavior demonstrated by PLA aircraft in the Indo-Pacific region that increases the risk of an accident. The Secretary also affirmed that the United States will continue to fly, sail, and operate wherever international law allows.”
A senior U.S. defense official told Reuters that the two leaders had a “lengthy” conversation about Taiwan and about restarting the mechanisms that the Chinese had canceled after Pelosi’s visit in the coming months.
Austin raised concerns about the possibility of Russia using nuclear weapons in Ukraine and the North Korean military’s frequent missile tests and called on China to enforce United Nations Security Council resolutions fully regarding the latter subject.
“Secretary Austin discussed Russia’s unprovoked war against Ukraine and underscored how both the United States and the PRC oppose the use of nuclear weapons or threats to use them. Secretary Austin also expressed concerns about recent provocations from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and called on the PRC to fully enforce existing U.N. Security Council resolutions regarding the DPRK’s unlawful weapons programs.”
Comparatively, the Chinese Defense Ministry said in its readout of the meeting, “General Wei stressed that the Taiwan question is at the very core of China’s core interests and is the first red line that must not be crossed in China-US relations. Taiwan is China’s Taiwan. The settlement of the Taiwan question is the Chinese people’s own affair, and no external force has the right to interfere. The Chinese armed forces have the backbone, resolve, confidence and capability to resolutely safeguard the national reunification.”
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Austin and Wei’s meeting comes about two weeks after President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping met in a wide-ranging, roughly three-hour-long conversation on the sidelines of the Group of 20 leaders summit in Bali, Indonesia, where they discussed their strained relationship.
“President Biden raised concerns about PRC practices in Xinjiang, Tibet, and Hong Kong, and human rights more broadly,” the White House said at the time. “He raised U.S. objections to the PRC’s coercive and increasingly aggressive actions toward Taiwan, which undermine peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and in the broader region and jeopardize global prosperity.”
