Brad Lendon
China will not send its defense minister to this year’s Shangri-La Dialogue, shunning a chance for a high-level meeting with US and Asian counterparts as tensions simmer with Washington.
China announced Thursday it will instead be represented by a delegation from the People’s Liberation Army National Defense University, marking the first time in five years a high-level delegation from Beijing will miss Asia’s largest defense and security forum.
The United States will be represented by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at the event, which often provides opportunities on the sidelines for rare face-to-face meetings between top generals and defense officials from the US and China.
Last year then-US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with Minister of National Defense Adm. Dong Jun on the sidelines of the event and the two pledged to continue a US-China dialogue amid simmering military tensions over Taiwan and Chinese aggression in the South China Sea.
Beijing’s decision not to send Dong this year throws into question whether there will be any meeting between the US and China at a time of heightened tensions between the two.
China has railed against America’s efforts in recent years to tighten its alliances and defense posture in Asia, while economic frictions rose to historic levels earlier this year after US President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on China sparked a tit-for-tat between the two countries that saw duties rise to more than 100% on each other’s goods.
While the two sides announced a temporary tariff truce earlier this month, tensions flared against this week. On Wednesday, two days before the forum’s opening, the US aimed a shock double punch targeting software exports to Chinese tech companies and study visas granted to Chinese students, risking a fragile trade war truce between Washington and Beijing.
No comments:
Post a Comment