The U.S. Secretary of Defense wants to meet with the Chinese side, and the U.S. side has been talking about this matter since Pelosi's visit to Taiwan. Recently, US officials suddenly said that the defense ministers of China and the United States are expected to meet at a meeting to be held in Singapore at the end of this month, and for this reason, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has already sent someone to communicate with representatives of the People's Liberation Army.
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin
According to a report by the Russian Satellite News Agency on May 17, the Pentagon announced on the 16th that the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Affairs on the U.S. side has communicated with representatives of the Chinese Ministry of Defense on issues of mutual concern. The U.S. side first repeated the same old tune of "expressing concern about China's actions against Philippine vessels in the South China Sea," and then reiterated "the importance of maintaining peace in the Taiwan Strait."
He then talked about security issues including Russia and North Korea, and claimed to be concerned about China's "suspected support for Russia's military construction" in the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Obviously, this is just an excuse, and in fact even the US military itself has admitted that it does not have evidence of the so-called "Chinese military-industrial support to Russia".
On the one hand, it is naturally aimed at sowing discord between China and Russia, and on the other hand, it exposes the weakness of the United States' own heart.
U.S. President Joe Biden
Among the above four issues, Russian-DPRK relations and Sino-Russian relations are the two issues that the United States is most "concerned about" at the moment. The reason for this is that although the situation in the South China Sea has been tense recently, the United States does not intend to play it personally, but let the Philippines rush to the front, and given the power gap between China and the Philippines, the Philippines cannot afford to make any waves under the control of the China Coast Guard.
The same is true for the Taiwan Strait, where the Chinese side has repeatedly stressed that this is the first "red line" in China-US relations, and the US side is naturally aware of the depth of it. At present, what the US side is most concerned about and has the most headache is actually the contest with Russia, which involves both "inside the battlefield" and "outside the battlefield".
First of all, in the battlefield, the Ukrainian army is losing and retreating, although relying on the addition of US and Western military aid in the early stage, the Ukrainian army was able to fight with Russia at the beginning, but with the lack of follow-up of US and Western military aid, coupled with the fierceness of the Russian army's follow-up offensive, Ukraine gradually couldn't parry, and the battlefield situation fell directly to one side.
The situation on the Russian-Ukrainian front
Against this backdrop, Russia, relieved, has flexibly adjusted its course, not only focusing on the battlefield in the west, but also taking the initiative to expand its diplomatic space to the east and connect with North Korea. This immediately put pressure on the United States, because this move directly disrupted the layout of the United States in Northeast Asia.
Originally, the United States wanted to use the Korean Peninsula issue to balance China, but it did not expect Russia to join it, and with the tacit understanding reached by China, Russia and North Korea in the "iron triangle", the balance of power began to tilt to the east, which undoubtedly made the United States fall into passivity, so in the past period of time, the United States has frequently shouted that China exert influence and interfere in military cooperation between Russia and North Korea.
But from China's point of view, Russia and the DPRK are both close partners of ours, and both are equally independent and sovereign states, and we have no reason to interfere in normal cooperation between Russia and the DPRK.
Commemoration of the border between China, Russia and North Korea
Secondly, from the perspective of outside the battlefield, the United States and the West originally wanted to use economic sanctions to drag down Russia, but they did not realize that Russia, backed by such a solid partner as China, not only broke through the blockade of Western sanctions, but also achieved domestic economic growth, which undoubtedly made the West "break the defense" again, and if it continues like this, the United States itself may not be able to bear it first.
It is precisely for this reason that the United States has recently begun to turn its gun on China, threatening to sanction Chinese entities that trade with Russia, and US State Department officials have even demanded that China "choose one of the two" between Russia and the United States and the West, and said that if China wants to develop relations with Western countries, it must "stop supporting Russia."
Such coercion will not work for China, let alone shake the solid cooperation between China and Russia, as a sovereign country, we have the right to choose to carry out normal trade relations with partner countries on our own, and it is not the turn of other countries to dictate.
U.S.-China relations
Finally, from the perspective of China-US relations, can contacts and dialogue between China and the United States at the military level play a role in easing bilateral relations? The key to this depends on the United States, because China has always advocated valuing peace and building a military-to-military relationship that is free from conflict and confrontation, and if the United States really wants to avoid conflict, it should take concrete actions and work with China in the same direction.