China’s defense ministry criticized the United States just a week after top military officials from both nations engaged in high-level talks. The Chinese spokesperson, Wu Qian, accused the U.S. of persistent interference in the Asia Pacific region, maintaining a “Cold War” mindset, and pursuing its own selfish gains to uphold hegemony.
Despite both sides committing to restoring contacts during the talks and emphasizing the need to prevent miscalculations, the Chinese spokesperson adopted a hawkish tone during the year’s final regular press conference. Wu Qian stated that the U.S. was intensifying its Asia-Pacific deployments, attributing this to a Cold War mentality, and asserting that the primary aim was to fuel confrontation.
The recent videoconference between top U.S. General Charles Brown and his Chinese counterpart, General Liu Zhenli, was the first such event in over a year. While the talks were deemed to have produced “positive and constructive outcomes,” China insisted that the United States must take concrete actions based on equality and respect to foster a stable and sound development of the China-US military-to-military relationship.
This exchange followed a pact in San Francisco the previous month, where leaders from both nations committed to resuming military ties. Tensions had escalated when Beijing severed ties after Nancy Pelosi, the then-speaker of the House of Representatives, visited self-ruled Taiwan in 2022. The expectation from Beijing is that Washington will announce specific measures later to advance the relationship on the basis of equality and respect.
