US to send more senior delegation to China military forum
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It is a sign that the US military is hoping for deeper working-level engagement with China.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON/BEIJING - The United States will send Mr Michael Chase, the deputy assistant secretary of defence for China, Taiwan and Mongolia, to Beijing’s top annual security forum in mid-September, a US official told Reuters.
The choice of Mr Chase has not been previously reported.
He is more senior than the US officer who attended the Xiangshan Forum in 2023. This is a sign that the US military is hoping for deeper working-level engagement with China amid regional disputes and increased deployments across East Asia.
More than 90 countries and international organisations plan to send delegations to the Sept 12 to 14 forum in Beijing, Chinese state media reported on Sept 4.
Mr Chase’s attendance is in line with historical norms, the US official added, since then US Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for China Chad Sbragia attended the forum in 2019.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
Washington sent Ms Xanthi Carras, China country director in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defence, when the forum resumed in 2023 after a three-year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
It was a sign of thawing military ties; however, Ms Carras’ title is of a lower rank than Mr Chase or Mr Sbragia.
Mr Chase co-chaired US-China military talks in Washington in January – the first such working-level talks since 2022, when most bilateral military engagement was suspended after then US Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan
Taiwan and the South China Sea remain contentious flashpoints in the US-China relationship, with both sides unwilling to compromise on “core issues”.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said, during a visit to China last week, that no new agreements had been reached on the South China Sea.
Beijing has repeatedly criticised US deployments in the Asia-Pacific region, including the placement of long-range missiles in the Philippines, as well as US arms sales to democratically governed Taiwan, which China considers its own territory over the strenuous objections of Taipei.
Meanwhile, the US has raised concerns over China’s “aggressive” actions in the South China Sea
Official nuclear talks were halted by Beijing in July in protest against America’s arms sales to Taiwan.
But both sides have agreed that US Indo-Pacific Command leaders would soon speak by phone to their counterparts in China’s southern theatre command, which covers its southern seas. REUTERS
