A senior Pentagon official held talks with the Chinese military for the first time since President Joe Biden took office in January, to focus on managing risk between the two countries, an unnamed U.S. official told Reuters yesterday. Michael Chase, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for China, spoke last week with Chinese Maj. Gen. Huang Xueping, Deputy Director for the People’s Liberation Army Office for International Military Cooperation. “(They) utilized the U.S.-P.R.C. Defense Telephone Link to conduct a secure video conference,” the U.S. official said. “Both sides agreed on the importance of maintaining open channels of communication between the two militaries.”
Days later, the guided missile destroyer USS Kidd and the U.S. Coast Guard cutter USCG Munro passed through the Taiwan Strait to demonstrate “the U.S. commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific,” the U.S. 7th Fleet said in a press release. “The United States military flies, sails, and operates anywhere international law allows.” The transit of the Kidd and the Munro was the eighth time in 2021 that U.S. ships have transited the Taiwan Strait.
