On Monday, media reported that China rebuffed a U.S. proposal for a defense chief meeting at an annual security gathering in Singapore this weekend.
“Overnight, the PRC informed the U.S. that they have declined our early May invitation for Secretary Austin to meet with PRC Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu in Singapore,” the Pentagon told the Wall Street Journal.
The Pentagon advocated open communication “to ensure that competition does not veer into conflict.”
Last week, White House spokesman John Kirby said the Defense Department was discussing meetings between Lloyd Austin and the Chinese defense minister appointed in March.
Given regional security issues and trade disputes that prevented re-engagement by the world’s two largest economies, their summit was carefully monitored.
In the first U.S.-China cabinet-level meeting in months, Gina Raimondo and Wang Wentao sparred over trade, investment, and export policies in Washington last week.
China’s rejection of Austin worried Singaporean security analyst Ian Storey.
“At a time of rising U.S.-China tensions, General Li’s refusal to meet his American counterpart will fray regional nerves even further,” Storey added.
Austin and Li will attend the annual Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore on Friday, an informal gathering of defense officials and analysts that includes side discussions.
Both will meet regional counterparts bilaterally.
Chinese officials haven’t explained Li’s snub, although several security analysts suggested Beijing’s displeasure with U.S. sanctions on him.
Security researchers say Li, a veteran of the People’s Liberation Army modernization drive, has been under U.S. sanctions since 2018 for buying combat aircraft and equipment from Rosoboronexport, Russia’s biggest arms exporter. Xi Jinping’s Central Military Commission includes Li.
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