Gen. Brown speaks with his Chinese counterpart for first time since assuming top Pentagon job

Gen. Brown speaks with his Chinese counterpart for first time since assuming top Pentagon job. The US and China resumed high-level military contacts that have been suspended since a bitter falling out over Taiwan in 2022.

General CQ Brown, who took over as US chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in October, held the call with General Liu Zhenli, his counterpart in China’s People’s Liberation Army, the Pentagon announced.

US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed last month to restart military-to-military communications that Beijing halted in August 2022 after then-House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan.

The renewed talks come as Beijing and Washington seek to thaw icy bilateral relations as both governments deal with a series of crises buffeting their leadership. The White House is struggling to manage wars in Gaza and Ukraine, while Xi is facing a severe economic slump at home.

“I think both sides see that, with the Taiwan elections in January but also the US elections coming in November of next year, 2024 promises to pose some important tests for US-China relations,” said Jacob Stokes, an Asia expert at the Center for a New American Security think-tank.

Gen. Brown speaks with his Chinese counterpart for first time. “If it’s possible to inject a level of stability into the relationship in advance of that, it might help ties weather those tensions without major problems erupting,”

Stokes added.

The Pentagon said Brown discussed “the importance of working together to responsibly manage competition, avoid miscalculations, and maintain open and direct lines of communication”.

Brown said that “substantive dialogue” would “reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings”, according to the Pentagon statement. The US military has accused Beijing of “risky and coercive” intercepts by the PLA’s air force, where fighter jets have flown dangerously close to American military aircraft — though the top American officer in the region has said those maneuvers have tailed off in recent months.

Relations between Washington and Beijing have been at one of their lowest points ever since Biden took office three years ago, with his administration expressing mounting concerns over the PLA’s activity around Taiwan, its rapidly expanding nuclear arsenal, and Xi’s treatment of Muslim Uyghurs in Xinjiang. Attempts to mend bridges were scuppered earlier this year after the US shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the coast of South Carolina.

China, for its part, has objected to US export controls that restrict access to cutting-edge technology, particularly microprocessors that can be used in quantum computing and artificial intelligence, that also have military applications.

US defense officials described the calls as a first step to resuming more open military communications at all levels. China and the US have been in talks over a series of senior-level military engagements in 2024. Officials have cautioned that additional contacts could take time, in part because China has not replaced Defense Minister Li Shangfu. Li was formally removed from his post in October amid a corruption investigation.

Brown called for restarting a channel known as the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement, which is designed to help reduce the chances of an incident at sea escalating. He also resumed an effort to arrange a meeting between Admiral John Aquilino, the top US officer in the Pacific, and his Chinese counterparts — a move that has been underway for almost three years.

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