The forthcoming meeting during the IISS conference is the first between Austin and Secretary of Defense General Wei Fenghe. Despite the United States focusing on the Indo-Pacific as a priority area for the future and calling China a “pacing challenge,” Austin spoke with Wei only once in an April 20 phone call. It was the first such call from the previous government. U.S. officials were discussing the details of the meeting, the official said, in order to avoid the very public spectacle of the first meeting between the United States and China under the Biden administration. This meeting, held in March 2021 in Alaska, quickly led Foreign Minister Antony Blinken and his counterpart in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to accuse each other of violating everything from the established rules of the meeting to the international order. “One of the basic rules we aim to establish with the PRC is that we will characterize our position and they will be able to characterize their position,” the official said. “I think we are making every effort to ensure that this is a professional, meaningful meeting.” The meeting takes place during Austin’s fourth trip to the Indo-Pacific region at the official request of the Chinese military leadership. In addition to trying to establish lines of communication at the highest levels of the military, the United States also wants to see communication mechanisms between commanders at the theater level. “This was a priority for us in the defense relationship,” the official said. The United States also has a “relatively new” crisis communications working group with China, the official said. Although no date has been set for the next meeting, both sides agree that it should take place this year. Wei stressed the working group on the invitation, according to the official. The United States has often cited what it sees as China’s growing aggression in the region, accusing the People’s Liberation Army of unsafe and dangerous activity, especially around the South China Sea and Taiwan.
Australia – one of America’s closest allies in the Indo-Pacific – condemned Beijing when a Chinese fighter jet fired straw and flares near an Australian surveillance aircraft late last month. At the same time, China has strongly condemned relations between the United States and Taiwan. After a congressional delegation visited Taiwan late last month, the Chinese embassy in Washington urged the United States to “refrain from sending false messages to the” Taiwanese independence “separatist forces, according to a statement from the embassy. That same week, China sent 30 warplanes to Taiwan’s air defense zone, the highest daily rate in four months. “The issue of Taiwan will have a prominent place in all the minister’s talks,” the senior defense official said.