The United States has pulled its allies to "flex its muscles" and its sincerity in dialogue with China

On April 22, in Manila, Philippines, the Philippine and U.S. military launched the 2024 "Shoulder to Shoulder" joint military exercise. Many Filipinos protested the exercise in front of the military headquarters in Manila that day. Courtesy of Visual China

Recently, the US military's contacts with China have once again staged a drama of "inconsistency between words and deeds": On the evening of 16 April, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin reiterated the one-China policy in a video call between the Chinese and US defense ministers, and on 17 April, a US P-8A antisubmarine patrol plane sailed through the Taiwan Strait and openly hyped it up; and then on 21 April, US Pacific Fleet Commander Stephen Koehler led a delegation to China to attend the 19 th annual meeting of the Western Pacific Naval Forum. In a signal to strengthen exchanges and cooperation, on April 22, the United States enlisted the Philippines to launch the largest "shoulder-to-shoulder" joint military exercise in history, claiming that it would aim to sink the only "Chinese-made" ship in the Philippine Navy, the "Lake Carilaya", seriously raising security risks in the South China Sea and the Asia-Pacific region.

The resumption of dialogue between the Chinese and US militaries comes at a time when the two countries are interacting frequently in the fields of economy, trade, and diplomacy. Some analysts believe that the strengthening of multi-level contacts between China and the United States is of positive significance for easing bilateral relations and managing differences, but it seems that the United States has not stopped its specific military threats and provocations against China, and insists on winning over its allies in China's neighborhood to engage in "small moves" and "flexing its muscles," and its sincerity in dialogue with China is very doubtful.

China and the United States are seeking to resume military dialogue

On the evening of April 16, Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun had a video call with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin at the request. This is the first formal dialogue between the Chinese and US defense ministers in nearly 18 months. In August 2022, due to the visit of then Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, China announced eight countermeasures, including the cancellation of the scheduled phone call between the leaders of the Chinese and US military theaters and the working meeting between the defense ministries of the two countries.

At their meeting in San Francisco last November, the Chinese and US heads of state agreed to resume high-level communication between the two militaries, a working meeting between the Chinese and US defense ministries, a meeting of the Sino-US maritime military security consultation mechanism, and a conference between the leaders of the Chinese and US military theaters on the basis of equality and respect. Subsequently, in order to ensure the implementation of the consensus of the heads of state and stabilize Sino-US relations, in December last year, Liu Zhenli, member of the Central Military Commission and chief of staff of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission, held a video call with Brown Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US military. In January this year, the 17th Sino-US Defense Ministry Working Meeting was held in Washington, D.C. In early April, China and the United States resumed a meeting of the Working Group of the Maritime Military Security Consultative Mechanism.

In a phone call on the evening of April 16, Dong Jun told Austin that the Chinese and US militaries should explore ways to get along, regard peace as the priority, stability as the priority, and trust as the basic principles of exchanges, and build a relationship between the two militaries that is free from conflict and non-confrontation, open and pragmatic cooperation, and gradually accumulate mutual trust on the basis of equality and respect, so as to truly serve as a stable cornerstone for the development of bilateral relations. According to a press release released by the U.S. Department of Defense, the Chinese and U.S. defense ministers discussed defense relations and regional and global security issues, and Austin also stressed the importance of keeping the channels of military communication between China and the United States open.

According to the Associated Press, the latest call between the Chinese and US defense ministers lasted more than an hour. CNN, citing U.S. Defense Department officials, reported that the call was an "important step" in the engagement between the Chinese and U.S. militaries, and that China and the United States are discussing the possibility of continued contacts between the military departments of the two countries in the future, which will provide an opportunity to candidly express their positions and prevent competition from turning into conflict. Reuters believes that the call can take place, reflecting that both China and the United States are seeking to resume military dialogue in the context of possible uncertainties in this year's U.S. election.

Just after the phone call between the Chinese and US defense ministers, Stephen Koehler, commander of the US Pacific Fleet, led a delegation to attend the 19th annual meeting of the Western Pacific Naval Forum held in Qingdao from 21 to 24 April. This is the first time in 10 years that the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy has hosted this annual meeting of the forum, which was attended by more than 180 foreign representatives from high-level delegations from 29 countries. Colin Gao, a researcher at Singapore's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, explained that the US side seeks to "build on the current positive momentum" and that China has also expressed its willingness to re-engage.

The red line on the Taiwan issue cannot be crossed

A review of recent China-US interactions shows that the Chinese side has repeatedly reiterated that the Taiwan issue is the core of China's core interests, and China's core interests must not be compromised. On 15 April, Qiu Kaiming, deputy director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the CPC Central Committee and the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, expounded China's principled stand on the Taiwan issue when he met with Assistant Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific Affairs of the US State Department Kangda and Senior Director for China Affairs of the White House National Security Council Bernaran and his entourage. On the evening of 16 April, Dong Jun stressed to Austin that the Chinese People's Liberation Army will never let anything go wrong with all "Taiwan independence" separatist activities and external connivance and support.

However, the US obviously lacks concrete actions to move in the same direction as China. According to the US press release, during the phone call between the Chinese and US defense ministers, Austin reiterated the one-China policy on the one hand, and on the other hand, added the so-called "Taiwan Relations Act" and "Six Assurances", two prefixes unilaterally concocted by the US side instead of a consensus between China and the United States, in addition to the three Sino-US joint communiques. On 17 April, the day after the phone call between the Chinese and US defense ministers, Senior Colonel Li Xi, spokesman for the Eastern Theater of Operations, reported that a US P-8A antisubmarine patrol plane sailed through the Taiwan Strait and openly hyped it up. The Eastern Theater of the Chinese People's Liberation Army organized fighter planes to track and alert the US plane's transit and handle it in accordance with laws and regulations.

In order to achieve the goal of promoting the so-called "Indo-Pacific strategy", some concepts concocted by the US have become an excuse for strengthening its military collusion with China's Taiwan region. On April 24, U.S. President Joe Biden signed a $95 billion foreign assistance bill, including an $8.12 billion "2024 Indo-Pacific Security Supplemental Appropriations Act" to respond to what the United States calls "Chinese mainland's actions in the Indo-Pacific region." Of this amount, $2 billion will be used to provide "foreign military financing" to Taiwan and other major regional allies, and $1.9 billion will be used to provide defense goods and services to "regional partners," including Taiwan.

"China firmly opposes the recent erroneous words and deeds of the US on the Taiwan issue. On April 22, on the eve of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's visit to China, the head of the Department of American and International Affairs of the Chinese Foreign Ministry told the media that the Taiwan issue is the first red line that cannot be crossed in Sino-US relations.

Some scholars in Washington have begun to face up to the seriousness of China's advice to the United States not to challenge China's "red line" on the Taiwan issue. Rory Daniels, a senior researcher at the China Analysis Center of the Asia Society Policy Institute, a US think tank, analyzed in a written debate at the Brooklyn Institution in April that some "defensive" actions by the United States, the Taiwan authorities, and Chinese mainland are bringing the security situation in the Taiwan Strait closer and closer to each other's "red lines." This could lead to an uncontrollable escalation of the conflict, which is not in the interests of either party and the will of the population.

The United States has enlisted the Philippines to exacerbate regional tensions

It is worth noting that the United States has also intensified its actions and military deployments in the South China Sea by rallying the Philippines and other allies. On April 11, at the first trilateral summit with the Philippines and Japan, the United States told the Philippine side that it could invoke the U.S.-Philippines Mutual Defense Treaty if Philippine aircraft, ships, or armed forces were attacked in the South China Sea. On the same day, according to information released by the US Army Pacific, the US Army's First Multi-Domain Task Force deployed the "Typhon" missile system with medium-range strike capability in the northern part of Luzon Island in the Philippines. This is the first time since the end of the Cold War that the United States has deployed land-based medium-range missiles in the region.

Luzon Island in the Philippines and Taiwan Island in China are separated by the Bass Strait, and have a special geographical location. The Bass Strait is a common route for US aircraft carrier formations to enter the South China Sea and for our military to enter the western Pacific region. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies of the United States, the "Typhon" system can also launch "Tomahawk" missiles with a range of up to 1,600 kilometers. According to the analysis of a number of foreign media, the deployment of medium-range missiles by the US military in the Philippines is intended to target China. On this issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lin Jian said on April 18 that China has always firmly opposed the deployment of medium-range missiles by the United States in the Asia-Pacific region in order to seek unilateral military superiority, and strengthened forward deployment at China's doorstep. The US move has exacerbated regional tensions and increased the risk of misunderstanding and miscalculation.

The U.S. military did not say how long the Typhon system will remain in the Philippines, but CNN reported that the deployment was included in the two-week Salaknib-24 military exercise that began on April 8. On April 22, the day after the above-mentioned military exercises ended on April 21, the United States and the Philippines launched the 2024 "Shoulder to Shoulder" joint military exercise "seamlessly". According to the Philippine side, the exercise will last until May 10 and will involve more than 16,700 military personnel, the largest in the past 33 years.

This year, the United States and the Philippines have also broken through a number of "firsts", including: the exercise was launched for the first time outside the 12-nautical-mile territorial waters of the Philippines, and France sent troops to participate for the first time, and Australia is the same official participating country. Canada, Germany, India, Japan and the Republic of Korea participated as observers. According to some analysts, the participation of countries outside the region in the exercise means that NATO is substantively involved in Asian security affairs, and that the "Asian mini-NATO" that the United States has cobbled together to restrain China has already taken shape, which is alarming. Teng Jianqun, director of the Diplomatic Research Center of Hunan Normal University, said in an analysis that the Chinese side should be prepared for exchanges between the Chinese and US militaries: on the one hand, it should maintain contacts with the United States, and on the other hand, it should also make emergency preparations in the face of relevant US moves.

China Youth Daily, China Youth Network Intern Reporter Ma Ziqian Reporter Jiang Tian Source: China Youth Daily

Source: China Youth Daily