China Power

The Resumption of China-US Military Dialogue and the Limits of the Thaw

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China Power | Security | East Asia

The Resumption of China-US Military Dialogue and the Limits of the Thaw

Do recent military-to-military talks indicate a genuine improvement in China-U.S. relations?

The Resumption of China-US Military Dialogue and the Limits of the Thaw

U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin meets with China’s Minister of Defense Dong Jun in Singapore, May 31, 2024, on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue.

Credit: U.S. Department of Defense photo by Chad J. McNeeley

After February 2023, when a U.S. Air Force F-22 fighter jet shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the U.S. east coast, relations between the United States and China plummeted. Despite the easing of the COVID-19 pandemic, military dialogue between the two nations was slow to improve. This is particularly evident in the multiple military exercises China has conducted near Taiwan, where both Chinese actions and U.S. responses were on display. 

It was not until December 2023, when General Charles Q. Brown Jr., chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, held a video conference with Liu Zhenli, chief of the Joint Staff Department of China’s Central Military Commission, that military communication between the two powers resumed.

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