US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, during a visit to Tokyo, today, Thursday, expressed his “regret” at the refusal of his Chinese counterpart Li Changfu to meet with him this week, especially in light of the “provocative” maneuvers recently carried out by Chinese fighter jets near US military aircraft.
“I think it’s unfortunate,” Austin told reporters in Tokyo, warning that after recent “provocative interceptions” by Chinese fighter jets, he was more concerned about the possibility of an accident that “could quickly spin out of control,” according to AFP.
On Monday, the Pentagon announced that Beijing had rejected a US invitation to hold a meeting between the US and Chinese defense ministers this week on the sidelines of a defense summit in Singapore.
“The People’s Republic of China has informed the United States that it declines an invitation from us in early May for a meeting this week in Singapore between Secretary Austin and China’s Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu,” Pentagon spokesman General Pat Ryder said in a statement Monday.
“The lack of willingness of the People’s Republic of China to engage in meaningful military talks is worrisome, but it will not weaken the Department of Defense’s commitment to seeking to open lines of communication with the People’s Liberation Army,” Ryder said.
For its part, Beijing contented itself with saying through its spokeswoman, “The United States clearly knows the reason for the current difficulties in military communications.”
Austin stopped in Tokyo for a short visit on the way to Singapore, telling reporters, “They’ve heard me talk many times about the importance of countries with great potential, and the need for them to talk to each other so they can manage crises and prevent things from spiraling out of control unnecessarily.” .
He added that China’s “recent provocative interceptions of our aircraft and those of our allies” are “extremely troubling.”
“Hopefully they will change their actions, but since they haven’t done so yet, I’m worried about an accident happening at some point that could spin out of control very quickly.”
Also, earlier, a senior official in the Ministry of Defense described the refusal to accept the invitation as “the latest in a series of excuses,” and said that, as of 2021, China “has either rejected or not responded to more than 12 requests by the Ministry of Defense for communication between the two leaderships, And on several requests for permanent dialogues, and about 10 requests for communication at the level of work teams.
The US administration imposed sanctions on Li Shang Fu in 2018 because of his purchase of Russian weapons, but the Pentagon asserts that this matter does not prevent Austin from officially dealing with him.
On Tuesday, the US military announced that a Chinese military pilot had carried out an “unjustified aggressive maneuver” on Friday near a US military reconnaissance plane that was flying over the South China Sea.
Video footage released showed a fighter jet passing in front of an American plane, shaking due to the turbulence caused by the passage of the Chinese fighter.
China responded on Wednesday by accusing the United States of carrying out “provocative and dangerous maneuvers,” stressing that the American reconnaissance plane “deliberately penetrated our training area.”
These events come at a time of rising tensions between Beijing and Washington over issues such as Taiwan and the flight of a Chinese balloon over US territory at the beginning of the year.