Gen. Charles Q. Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met virtually with his Chinese counterpart, Gen. Liu Zhenli, on Thursday morning, ending a nearly year-and-a-half period of silence between the two militaries.
Their conversation, which the Pentagon said was conducted over a video teleconference, marked the first senior U.S. military official to speak with his or her Chinese counterpart since Beijing suspended lines of communication in response to then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-CA) visit to Taiwan in August 2022.
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"Gen. Brown discussed the importance of working together to responsibly manage competition, avoid miscalculations, and maintain open and direct lines of communication. Gen. Brown reiterated the importance of the People's Liberation Army engaging in substantive dialogue to reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings," Joint Staff spokesman Navy Capt. Jereal Dorsey said in a readout of their meeting. "The two military leaders discussed a number of global and regional security issues."
Brown, who became chairman of the Joint Staff in October, "reaffirmed the importance of holding the bilateral Defense Policy Coordination Talks, holding Military Maritime Consultative Agreement talks, and opening lines of communication."
Thursday's call is the first high-level engagement that came out of President Joe Biden's meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, in which they agreed to restart military-to-military communications. The meeting was projected to be a chance to stabilize and improve U.S.-China relations following the increased diplomatic tension and high-risk military encounters in the South China Sea, but it continued a pattern from Xi of pressing the United States for concessions in the Indo-Pacific.
"[Xi told Biden] that Beijing will reunify Taiwan with mainland China but that the timing has not yet been decided," NBC News reported, citing three sources familiar with the conversation. "Chinese officials also asked in advance of the summit that Biden make a public statement after the meeting saying that the U.S. supports China's goal of peaceful unification with Taiwan and does not support Taiwanese independence."
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Biden did not comply with the request.
Before the Biden-Xi meeting, which occurred on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, U.S.-Chinese relations had deteriorated over the course of Biden's administration through a series of tumultuous events, including Pelosi's visit, the Chinese spy balloon incident, and the increased frequency of unsafe or reckless maneuvers committed by Chinese pilots or naval leaders in the vicinity of U.S. forces.