China has refused to resume direct military communication with Washington despite repeated efforts from Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the top U.S. diplomat said on June 19 shortly after meeting with the Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
While he “raised repeatedly” the prospect of setting up a crisis communication line between the U.S. and Chinese militaries, “at this moment, China has not agreed to move forward with that,” Blinken told reporters at a press conference as he wrapped up his two-day trip to Beijing.
“I think that’s an issue that we have to keep working on,” he said. “It is very important that we restore those channels. If we agree that we have a responsibility to manage this relationship responsibly, if we agree that it’s in our mutual interests to make sure that the competitive aspects of the relationship don’t veer into conflict, then surely we can agree and see the need for making sure that the channels of communication that we’ve both said are necessary to do that include military-to-military channels.”…