According to Chinanews.com, on the evening of April 16, the Chinese and US defense ministers held a video call. Mainland Defense Minister Dong Jun made it clear that dialogue in the military field is crucial to stabilizing relations between the two countries. Therefore, the Chinese and US militaries should build a bilateral relationship that is free from conflict and confrontation on the basis of equality and respect, and serve as the cornerstone of stabilizing bilateral relations.
Defense Minister Dong Jun
On the Taiwan issue, Dong Jun stressed that the Taiwan issue is China's absolute core interest. The PLA will never let the "Taiwan independence" separatist activities and external interference forces go unchecked. Regarding the situation in the South China Sea, Dong Jun clearly stated that the situation in the South China Sea is generally stable and that regional countries are capable of solving problems.
This sentence has two meanings. First, the US and the Philippines continue to provoke, and why China still believes that the overall situation in the South China Sea is stable because we have the confidence and ability to defend our own interests, as China said earlier, "let the wind and waves rise, sit firmly in the Diaoyutai". Second, we have seen through the essence of the American paper tiger and know that the United States will not dare to end up at all, and in this case, the Philippines will not be able to set off a storm at all.
U.S.-Philippines joint patrols
Military exchanges are an indispensable part of properly handling Sino-US relations. As before, exchanges between China and the United States in the military field will lag behind economic and political dialogue. There are two main reasons for this. On the one hand, cooperation between the Chinese and American militaries has been lackluster.
On the other hand, the Chinese and US militaries lack a suitable atmosphere for dialogue. Recently, the US military has made many provocations at China's doorstep. Especially in the South China Sea, the US has not only dragged Japan and the Philippines into engaging in joint naval and air patrols, but also threatened China with the so-called "US-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty". It has also deployed intermediate-range missile systems in the Philippines to target the coastal areas of the mainland. These provocative moves by the US military send a very clear signal, that is, it wants to engage in a military confrontation with China. Under such circumstances, it will be difficult for China and the United States to sit down and have a good dialogue. In the past, the US side has repeatedly complained that it is unable to achieve high-level dialogue with the Chinese side, but the US side has not reflected on what it has done and is undermining the atmosphere of dialogue.
U.S.-China relations
Objectively speaking, the outbreak of conflict or direct confrontation between the two major military powers will be a disaster for both countries and the whole world, so dialogue and communication are necessary. However, the two sides should not engage in dialogue for the sake of dialogue, and each side should pay full attention to each other's legitimate concerns when expounding each other's positions and implement the consensus reached. It is clear that the US side has not taken the concerns repeatedly expressed by the Chinese side, let alone implemented the consensus reached by the two sides.
The day after the video call between the Chinese and US defense ministers, the US launched a serious provocation on the Taiwan issue. According to a report by Huanqiu.com, on April 17, a P-8A anti-submarine patrol plane of the US military sailed through the Taiwan Strait. After the incident, the US side also made a big public hype. In the face of the US provocation, the Eastern Theater of Operations organized fighter planes to follow and monitor US military planes sailing through the Taiwan Strait.
US P-8A anti-submarine patrol aircraft
The P-8A is already an old face, and in the past it often conducted reconnaissance of China in the Taiwan Strait, the South China Sea, the East China Sea and other directions. Sending military planes or warships to sail through the Taiwan Strait every month has basically become a "common practice" for the US military. In the Taiwan Strait, the US military has no military superiority to speak of, and whether it is a military plane or a warship sailing through the Taiwan Strait, it is a live target of the PLA. Therefore, this move by the US side has limited military significance and is more of a political hype.
Recently, the US side has been "briefing" on Blinken's visit to China, and the US military plane's choice to sail through the Taiwan Strait at this time node is nothing more than an attempt to create bargaining chips for Blinken. However, no matter how much the US side makes noise, the leading power of the situation in the Taiwan Strait is still in the hands of China. The true attitude of the US side toward the Taiwan issue was thoroughly exposed during the PLA's "exercise around Taiwan." The United States has no intention of going down in person, let alone preventing the PLA from taking over Taiwan.
Blinken
As soon as the Chinese and US defense ministers finished talking, the Chinese side also made clear its position on the Taiwan issue, and the US side turned around and provoked in the Taiwan Strait. Facts have once again proved that the US has no intention of responding to China's core concerns, let alone handling China-US bilateral relations responsibly. So we don't have to expect too much from the United States.