The conversation between Liu and Brown on Thursday last week was the first of its kind since Beijing cut off high-level military communications in August last year in protest at a visit to Taiwan by Nancy Pelosi, the then House speaker, which Beijing viewed as a major breach of its sovereignty.
Wu said: “We expect the US side to walk with us towards the same goal and take concrete actions on the basis of equality and mutual respect to promote a sound and steady development of the China-US military-to-military relationship.”
He also said “specific military exchange programmes” were up for discussion, but declined to give further details or a time frame, saying only that more information would be made available in “due course”.
In the same press briefing, Wu also protested against the US National Defence Authorisation Act for the Fiscal Year 2024, which proposes greater military aid for Taiwan and includes a series of measures aimed at countering China’s military influence in the Indo-Pacific.
Biden signed off the act – which increased the US defence budget and authorised more spending on intelligence, national security programmes and foreign relations – last Friday.
Wu said the Chinese military “firmly opposed” the act and said it “makes groundless hype about the so-called ‘Chinese military threat’, grossly interferes in China’s internal affairs, and severely harms China’s national sovereignty, security and development interests”.
Why US may have ‘sense of urgency’ to improve military ties with China
Why US may have ‘sense of urgency’ to improve military ties with China
He called Washington’s engagement with Taiwan “a very dangerous gamble” and said “we urge the US to fully realise the severe harm of the China-related content” in the act.
Beijing considers Taiwan a breakaway province that must be reunited with the mainland, and has never renounced the use of force to do so.
Most countries, including the US, do not officially recognise Taiwan as an independent state. However, Washington opposes a forcible change in the status quo and is legally bound to help Taiwan defend itself.
