US-China Hotline Goes Unanswered in Crises
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The US defense secretary’s effort to call his Chinese counterpart via a special crisis line during the recent downing of a Chinese balloon over the US went nowhere, the Pentagon said.
Within hours of an Air Force F-22 downing a giant Chinese balloon that had crossed the US, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reached out to his Chinese counterpart via a special crisis line, aiming for a quick general-to-general talk that could explain things and ease tensions.
But Austin’s effort Saturday fell flat, when Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe declined to get on the line, the Pentagon says.
China’s Defense Ministry says it refused the call from Austin after the balloon was shot down because the US had “not created the proper atmosphere” for dialogue and exchange. The US action had “seriously violated international norms and set a pernicious precedent,” a ministry spokesperson was quoted as saying in a statement issued late Thursday, AP reported.
It’s been an experience that’s frustrated US commanders for decades, when it comes to getting their Chinese counterparts on a phone or video line as some flaring crisis is sending tensions between the two nations climbing.
Without that ability for generals in opposing capitals to clear things up in a hurry, Americans worry that misunderstandings, false reports or accidental collisions could cause a minor confrontation to spiral into greater hostilities.
US military leaders’ faith in Washington-to-Beijing hotlines as a way to defuse flare-ups with China’s military has been butting up against a sharply different take — a Chinese political system that runs on slow deliberative consultation by political leaders and makes no room for individually directed, real-time talk between rival generals. And Chinese leaders are suspicious of the whole US notion of a hotline. They see it as an American channel for talking their way out of blowback for a US provocation.
US President Joe Biden has emphasized building lines of communications with China to “responsibly manage” their differences. A November meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Biden yielded an announcement the two governments would resume a range of dialogues that China had shut down after an August Taiwan visit by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.