US Navy slams China for no-show at maritime meetings

WASHINGTON • The US military has slammed China for failing to appear for virtual, senior-level meetings this week, calling it "another example that China does not honour its agreements", but Beijing said the US version of events distorted the facts.

Sino-US ties have further worsened this year over a range of issues, from Beijing's handling of the coronavirus to US support for Taiwan, China's clampdown on Hong Kong and rows over Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei.

The US has also long opposed China's expansive territorial claims in the South China Sea and has sent warships regularly through the strategic waterway.

Admiral Phil Davidson, head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, on Wednesday said that China's no-show for the scheduled meetings "should serve as a reminder to all nations as they pursue agreements with China going forward".

China had been due to participate in this week's meetings - from Monday to Wednesday - related to the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement (MMCA) focused on maritime safety, he said.

China's Navy rejected the criticism, saying responsibility for the failure of the meeting to go ahead "rests solely with the United States".

China provided the US side with suggestions for the meeting on Nov 18, Naval Colonel Liu Wensheng of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Navy said.

But the US "insisted on pushing its unilateral agenda", arbitrarily shortening and changing the nature of the meeting and "even attempting to force China to participate in the meeting before the two sides reached an agreement on the topics", Col Liu said.

The US military said it has met the PLA regularly since 1998 to conduct the MMCA dialogue. The talks this year were scheduled to be held virtually due to the pandemic.

The MMCA is partly designed to review any unsafe military incidents that have occurred between US and PLA forces.

Meanwhile, in a rare interview late on Tuesday, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told Reuters that President-elect Joe Biden should keep pressing China to stick to the phase 1 trade deal and use tariffs as leverage.

Mr Lighthizer said Beijing had done a "reasonably good job" in implementing parts of the deal, as he defended the Trump administration's record in shredding the status quo on trade and imposing unilateral tariffs on US$370 billion (S$490 billion) worth of Chinese goods.

Beijing signed the phase 1 trade deal nearly a year ago after months of tariffs, promising to boost purchases of an array of US goods and services by US$200 billion above 2017 levels over two years.

"I would keep the tariffs in place for sure," Mr Lighthizer said, when asked what he thought Mr Biden should do. "I think if you see the tariffs dissipating, that's a signal that we're not serious about understanding that China is a strategic adversary."

REUTERS