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HONG KONG, Oct. 31 (SCMP): Chinese and US defense officials agreed to accelerate talks during a possible crisis this week in a move that analysts describe as crucial to preventing an all-out conflict between the world’s largest armies.
Just days before the US presidential election and amid rumors that the Trump administration could launch an attack on the Chinese-claimed islands in the South China Sea, the two armies discussed crisis prevention and management. on Wednesday and Thursday via teleconference for the first meeting of the Crisis Communications Task Force.
“The two sides agreed on the importance of establishing mechanisms for timely communication during a crisis, as well as the need to maintain regular communication channels to prevent crises and conduct post-crisis assessments,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
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Participants in the task force included representatives from the office of the Secretary of Defense, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the US Indo-Pacific Command. The Chinese participants included representatives from the Office of International Military Cooperation of the Central Military Commission, the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the CMC Department and the Southern Theater Command of the PLA.
Both Chinese and regional analysts said there was an urgent need for such a mechanism amid mounting tensions between the two countries on multiple fronts, from trade to geopolitical rivalry.
“With the United States intensifying its pressure and containment strategy against China, the possibility of a serious miscalculation on the part of any of the military has been increasing and, without proper communication channels, could lead to the outbreak of a military conflict. “said Song Zhongping from Hong Kong. grassroots military commentator.
Tensions between China and the United States have risen to their highest level in decades with the two countries engaged in a confrontation on all fronts, from trade to the South China Sea and across the Taiwan Strait. There have also been suggestions that next week’s presidential elections in the United States could provide the fuse for a military confrontation between the two countries.
Defense ministers speak in the shadow of a US flight off the coast of China
Collin Koh, a researcher at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said the new task force reflects the efforts of the two countries to prevent their deteriorating relations from spilling over into military rule.
This also reflects recent murmurs among Chinese politicians and academics that they are finding it increasingly difficult to communicate with their American counterparts, and even some speculation that went to the point of claiming that Trump might attempt to provoke a military incident to prompt his re-election. . possibilities. And I think this is a shared sentiment between Beijing and Washington, ”Koh said.
Separately, Chinese Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said on Thursday that the two armies would hold talks on humanitarian assistance in mid-November and on maritime security before the end of the year.
The US and Chinese militaries established a maritime security consultation mechanism in 1998 to prevent conflicts in the air and at sea. Their last meeting was in eastern China’s Qingdao city in June last year.
In 2014, the United States and China, along with other countries, signed the Code of Unplanned Encounters at Sea (CUES), a non-binding agreement to prevent an escalation of tensions between armies at sea.
But Koh said that the close encounter in September 2018 between the destroyers, the USS Decatur and the PLA Navy’s Lanzhou, exposed the limitations of mechanisms like CUES, and that any crisis management strategy required sustained communication regardless of the political landscape.
“This new working group, in my opinion, can only be effective if there is a sustained effort and commitment from both parties to keep these dialogues active and functional, and not necessarily subject to political intrigue.” – South China morning post
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