‘The ball is in their court’: China silent on US request for defence chief talks, senior official says

Beijing yet to respond to Washington about proposed meeting between Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu and American counterpart Lloyd Austin
The two are set to attend the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore next week, but China is unlikely to agree to talks unless US lifts sanctions against Li

US-China relations

Connor Mycroft

Published: 8:00pm, 26 May 2023

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Corrected [3:16pm, 27 May, 2023]

[3:16pm, 27 May, 2023]
An earlier version of this story incorrectly reported that Li had been under US sanctions since 2018 for his alleged role in the transfer of S-200 air defence missile systems to China from Russia.

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Beijing has yet to formally respond to Washington’s request for talks between Chinese Defence Minister Li Shangfu and his US counterpart Lloyd Austin on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue next week, according to a senior US official.

Speaking at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies on Thursday, US assistant secretary of defence for Indo-Pacific security affairs Ely Ratner reiterated that Washington hoped for “open lines of communication”, but that China had yet to reciprocate.

“Several weeks ago, Secretary Austin and the Department of Defence issued a request to meet with General Li,” Ratner said. “That request has not been answered.

“The United States and the Department of Defence have an outstretched hand on this question of military-to-military engagement and we have yet to have had a consistently willing partner [in China].”

Are US sanctions to blame for deadlocked military engagement with China?

Li and Austin have yet to talk since the former’s promotion to defence minister in March, but both will attend the annual Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore starting on June 2.

According to a report by the Financial Times, Beijing said earlier this month that high-level defence talks were unlikely unless the US was ready to remove sanctions it had placed on Li, a move Washington later said was not “under negotiation”.

Li has been under US sanctions since 2018 for his alleged role in the transfer of Su-35 fighter jets and S-400 air defence missile systems to China from Russia.

Ratner said that while the US was “aware” of China’s expectations, it was not an adequate justification for shutting off dialogue.

“What is indisputable is that those [sanctions] have no legal or technical bearing on whether or not General Li is able to meet with Secretary Austin in Shangri-La,” Ratner said. “So that is not the prohibition and frankly the ball is in their court at this point.”

02:43

‘A clear overreaction’: Beijing rebukes Washington for shooting down Chinese balloon

There were hopes that 2023 would see a thaw in ties between the world’s two superpowers after Chinese President Xi Jinping met his US counterpart Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Bali last November.

However, those hopes were quickly dashed after the downing of an alleged Chinese spy balloon in February, which prompted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to postpone a planned trip to Beijing.

At the time of the downing, Li’s predecessor, Wei Fenghe, rejected a request for a secure call from Austin, according to the Pentagon.

China, US exchange barbs at ‘candid trade talks’, vow to manage rising tensions

But there have been moves to restore some lines of communication. On Thursday, top trade officials from the US and China had their first face-to-face meeting in Washington, where they discussed trade policies and agreed to set up communication channels.

The trade meeting followed another breakthrough earlier this month, when China’s top diplomat Wang Yi met US national security adviser Jake Sullivan in Vienna.

Austin and Wei previously met at the Asean Defense Ministers’ Meeting-Plus in Cambodia in November, as well as the 2022 Shangri-La Dialogue, where they reportedly discussed security issues concerning Taiwan as well as the importance of maintaining open lines of communication.

This year marks the 20th edition of the Shangri-La Dialogue, and more than 550 defence and security ministers, as well as other government officials, from over 40 jurisdictions are expected to attend.