US, China defence chiefs meet in Cambodia, In an effort to reduce tensions, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin met with his Chinese colleague Wei Fenghe on Tuesday in Cambodia. This is Austin and Wei’s first encounter since June, before US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan incited rage in Beijing. The meeting will take place on the margins of a defense ministers’ conference in Siem Reap.
US, China defence chiefs meet in Cambodia
But since then, China and the United States have taken steps to defuse the situation through meetings between their top officials. At a Group of 20 summits in Bali on November 14, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping had a three-hour meeting. This was the first face-to-face interaction between the heads of the two biggest economies in the world since they both took office.
After that, Xi and US Vice President Kamala Harris met in Bangkok for an Asia-Pacific conference. According to a White House official, Harris reiterated Biden’s point that “we must keep open lines of communication to responsibly manage the competitiveness between our countries.” According to Xi’s statement to Harris, his meeting with Biden was “strategic and constructive, and has important guiding significance for China-US relations in the next stage,” according to Chinese state media.
In August, Taiwan announced plans for a record increase to its defense budget after China conducted huge military drills in response to Pelosi’s visit to Taipei. Taiwan lives under constant threat of invasion by China, which claims the democratic island as part of its territory to be seized one day — by force if necessary. Beijing lashes out at any diplomatic action that might lend Taiwan legitimacy and has responded with growing anger to visits by Western officials and politicians.
For a week after Pelosi’s visit, China sent warships, missiles and fighter jets into the waters and skies around Taiwan, its largest and most aggressive exercises since the mid-1990s. Beijing had increased military pressure on Taiwan in recent years, particularly with incursions into the island’s air defence identification zone. Last year, Taiwan recorded incursions by about 970 Chinese warplanes into its air defense zone, according to a database compiled by AFP, more than double the roughly 380 in 2020.