Despite numerous warnings from China, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August of 2022, meeting with officials including Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen. This visit enraged Beijing, which retaliated with many invasive military exercises and other demonstrations of force near Taiwan. Most importantly, China cut off eight channels of cooperation with the U.S., including military dialogues such as the Defense Policy Coordination Talks and the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement meetings. Since then, restoring military communications with Beijing has been a key priority for Washington. 

 

Military and high-level communication between the two nations was further delayed following the spy balloon debacle in January of 2023. Notably, Chinese defense officials did not answer calls made by U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin after the incident. It took another five months before Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was able to travel to Beijing to meet with President Xi Jinping and other senior officials. Although Blinken’s trip made strides toward improving bilateral relations, it failed to accomplish one of the main goals of re-establishing military communications. China cited lifting sanctions against Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu as a precondition to these negotiations. However, the trip did restore high-level dialogue and paved the way for future meetings, such as Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen’s visit to China just a month later. 

 

Even before the Biden-Xi Summit was confirmed, experts were already speculating that military communications would resume. China began signaling that they would be willing to reopen lines of communication after a ramp-up of exchanges between the two nations before the summit, including consultations on maritime affairs with the U.S. on November 3rd. Additionally, the former Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu had been officially dismissed in October, which removed a key barrier to restoring talks.

 

After the summit President Biden announced, “We’re back to direct, open clear direct communication on a direct basis,” and he followed up by adding, “He and I agreed that each one of us can pick up the phone call directly and we'll be heard immediately.” The two leaders had agreed to restore high-level military-to-military communication as well as the previously canceled military dialogues meetings. Both presidents stressed the importance of maintaining open lines of communication in the future to avoid accidents and misunderstandings while managing the competitive aspects of the U.S.-China relationship. 

 

Although the result was already expected, it was still an important breakthrough for bilateral relations.  Not only is it a crucial step towards improved relations, but military communications also prevent miscalculation and reduce tensions. During the past year, there have been several cases where Chinese and American ships and fighters nearly collided in the South China Sea. These concerns have been amplified as China has increased the amount of risky and provocative intercepts of American aircraft. At his first meeting with his Chinese counterpart, People’s Liberation Army General Liu Zhenli, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force General Charles Q. Brown Jr emphasized the importance of having channels of military communication to reduce the likelihood of misunderstanding and miscalculation. A similar sentiment was echoed by U.S. military officials at the 2024 U.S.-PRC Defense Policy Coordination Talks in January, where topics like freedom of navigation operations, Russia, and North Korea were also discussed.

 

The agreement to reopen military communications is critical to avoid confrontation and ensure that both nations are on the same page. The dialogues also give a channel for both nations to discuss their concerns and disagreements as well as highlight their commitments to each other and other nations. However, these dialogues will not be enough to solve disagreements regarding issues from Taiwan to trade but are merely a promise that both nations will attempt to engage with each other healthily. As military officials from the two nations begin to meet again, it’s important to remember that much work is still left to be done to ensure healthy competition.

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April, 2024