U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is expected to meet with his Chinese counterpart in person for the first time at a conference in Singapore this week.
Austin, who will be in Singapore for the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security meeting this week, and then briefly in Cambodia and France, is continuing the Biden administration‘s effort to decrease tension with China.
This will be the secretary’s first time meeting his new Chinese counterpart, Adm. Dong Jun, though they spoke via phone in April.
Chinese military officials had largely ignored U.S. outreach during the Biden administration following then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) trip to Taiwan in August 2022 while continuing military aggression in the South China Sea.
Earlier this month, Taiwan inaugurated President Lai Ching-te, whom the Chinese have denounced as a “separatist,” and days later, they subsequently carried out large-scale military drills surrounding Taiwan.
“The PLA’s provocative activities show just how much peace and stability in the strait matter, especially for global trade and commerce,” a senior defense official said. “Whenever they conduct these kinds of exercises, we gain even greater insight into how their forces operate. In fact, these activities show just how hard it would be for the PLA to successfully conduct the kind of operation they’re practicing.”
Li Xi, a spokesman for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, said the drills “serve as a strong punishment for the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan independence’ forces and a stern warning against the interference and provocation by external forces.”
Dong was appointed as China’s defense minister in December 2023.
Austin is also slated to meet with Singapore’s new prime minister and other Singaporean officials, and he will participate in a trilateral ministerial meeting with his Japanese and Korean equivalents. He will also meet bilaterally with other regional officials.
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Following Austin and Dong’s first video call, a senior defense official told reporters, “I think that what we’ve seen is the PRC committed to reestablishing or reopening these lines of communication.”
President Joe Biden met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in San Francisco last November.