US expected to send senior Pentagon official to China military forum
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[September 04, 2024]
By Idrees Ali and Laurie Chen
WASHINGTON/BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States is set to send Michael
Chase, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for China, Taiwan and
Mongolia, to China's top annual security forum in mid-September, a U.S.
official told Reuters.
The choice of Chase has not been previously reported. He is more senior
than the U.S. official who attended the Xiangshan Forum last year, but
his rank is in line with historical norms for the Pentagon.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for China Chad Sbragia attended
the forum in 2019.
There is some hope that this could signal deeper working-level
engagement with China amid regional disputes. The official, who spoke on
condition of anonymity, said Chase's expected attendance was not
unprecedented, but sent a message that the United States prioritizes
engagement at the military level with China even at a time of heightened
tensions.
More than 90 countries and international organizations plan to send
delegations to the Sept. 12-14 forum in Beijing, Chinese state media
reported Wednesday.
Washington sent Xanthi Carras, China country director in the Office of
the Undersecretary of Defense, when the forum resumed last year after a
three-year hiatus due to the pandemic. It was a sign of thawing military
ties; however Carras' title is of a lower rank than Chase or Sbragia.
Chase co-chaired U.S.-China military talks in Washington in January -
the first such working-level talks since 2022, when most bilateral
military engagement was suspended after then-U.S. Speaker Nancy Pelosi's
visit to Taiwan.
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U.S. and Chinese flags are seen in this illustration, taken January
30, 2023. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Taiwan and the South China Sea remain contentious flashpoints in the
U.S.-China relationship, with both sides unwilling to compromise on
"core issues". U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said no
new agreements had been reached on the South China Sea during a
visit to China last week.
China has repeatedly criticized U.S. deployments in the Asia-Pacific
region, including the placement of long-range missiles in the
Philippines, as well as U.S. arms sales to democratically governed
Taiwan, which China considers its own territory, over the strenuous
objections of Taipei.
Meanwhile the U.S. has raised concerns over China's "aggressive"
actions in the South China Sea, its frequent military maneuvers in
the air and waters surrounding Taiwan, and what it says is the
opacity of China's nuclear buildup.
Official nuclear talks were halted by Beijing in July in protest
over U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. But both sides have agreed that U.S.
Indo-Pacific Command leaders would soon speak by phone to their
counterparts in China's southern theatre command, which covers its
southern seas.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Laurie Chen in Beijing; Writing by
Laurie Chen. Editing by Gerry Doyle and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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