Over the summer, Beijing limited Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin to a single handshake with sanctioned Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu at a top military forum. Now, Li’s drop from public view could help reboot senior-level military talks between the superpowers.
The Chinese defense chief is reported to be under probe, after not being seen in public since Aug. 29 and missing engagements, fueling speculation he’s set to be replaced. That would remove one major roadblock for military talks with the US, after Beijing made their resumption conditional on the removal of Li’s sanctions.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is expected to travel to the San Francisco in November to meet with Biden. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi met this weekend to discuss that possible meeting, according to people familiar with China’s preparations for the meeting.
The revival of top-level military talks come as concerns grow that an accident between the US and China in the South China Sea or around Taiwan could spill over into a broader conflict that would be catastrophic for the region and global economy. Now China appears to have made the conditions for talks favorable for top-level talks to resume, even if that wasn’t the intension. That removes the need for Biden to make an awkward choice between military stability and giving in to a demand from its key rival, Beijing.
The disappearances of Li and Qin didn’t come up during the discussion between Wang and Sullivan this weekend, and the US official didn’t raise the matter, a senior administration official said. That comes after the People’s Liberation Army in July announced it was launching a corruption probe into hardware procurement going back to October 2017 — the month after Li took over the equipment department.
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