US and Chinese military officials hold crisis communication talks in Washington

Pentagon and Chinese military officials held their annual crisis communications and prevention talks in Washington on 2 and 3 November, the US Department of War said in a readout released on 3 November. It was the latest in a run of contacts between the two militaries that resumed this year after a long freeze.

The US side was led by Cynthia Carras, known as Xanthi, the principal director for China, Taiwan and Mongolia in the office of the Under Secretary of War for Policy. She met Senior Colonel Wang Wei, deputy director of the Americas and Oceania affairs bureau in the People's Liberation Army's Office of International Military Cooperation.

According to the readout, the two officials agreed that it was important to advance practical communication measures that would lower the risks between the United States and China. The working group also discussed additional channels for managing crises effectively and ways for the two sides to communicate quickly and clearly. The department said it would keep pursuing talks with the PLA on key defence issues over the coming months.

What the readout did not say

The short statement did not name any specific agreement, hotline or procedure, and it did not mention a memorandum on crisis communication and prevention that Beijing said in late September the two militaries had agreed to sign as soon as possible. China's foreign ministry announced that plan on 26 September after the summit between President Donald Trump and Xi Jinping, but it was not on the list of summit outcomes published by the White House, and the Pentagon and Indo-Pacific Command had not publicly confirmed it at the time, United Daily News reported.

The Chinese side had not described what such a memorandum would contain, including whether it would create a new hotline, set rules for using existing links, or define which incidents would trigger crisis consultations, according to the same report. Washington and Beijing already signed two confidence-building memorandums in 2014, covering safe conduct during encounters at sea and in the air and the notification of major military activities, with an annex on air encounters added in 2015.

A thaw in military contacts

The working group meeting follows a series of senior military contacts. In late August, Admiral Samuel Paparo, the head of US Indo-Pacific Command, met General Yang Zhibin, commander of the PLA Eastern Theater Command, during an Indo-Pacific defence conference in Victoria, Canada. It was the first meeting between the two and ended a break of about two years in theatre-level contacts. The Eastern Theater Command is responsible for PLA operations facing Taiwan, the East China Sea and Japan.

China cut its military hotline with the United States for a time in 2022, after a visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi, then the Speaker of the US House of Representatives. When the Paparo and Yang meeting took place, Taiwan's defence ministry said it welcomed the two militaries keeping necessary communication, which it said helped reduce the risk of miscalculation and accidental clashes.

Why it matters

Crisis channels matter most around Taiwan and in the South China Sea, where Chinese and US aircraft and ships often operate close to one another. Past improvements in military contact have been interrupted by political disputes, and formal mechanisms have not always produced timely contact during a crisis. Whether the talks in Washington lead to concrete procedures, named points of contact or a signed memorandum is the test the readout leaves open.