China cancels security talks with Pentagon chief Mattis
A security meeting between US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and his Chinese counterpart has been canceled, the latest sign of deteriorating ties between Beijing and Washington.
A senior US official said Sunday that China canceled the meeting that had been planned for October, days after a top Chinese official said there was no reason to panic over growing tensions between the countries.
The official, who is involved in China policy and spoke on condition of anonymity, said China could not make Mattis’s counterpart available for the planned meeting, souring the Pentagon on the idea.
“The tension is escalating, and that could prove to be dangerous to both sides,” the official said.
The US Defense Department had been working on the possibility of a meeting between the Pentagon chief and his counterpart, General Wei Fenghe, as part of the diplomatic and security dialogue, US officials said.
The US-China diplomatic and security dialogue was held for the first time in June last year in Washington and was supposed to occur annually.
The cancellation was first reported by The New York Times.
Sources in Beijing said last week the security meeting may not take place because of the tensions in relations between the two countries.
China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, said on Friday at the UN General Assembly that there was “no cause for panic” over friction between Beijing and Washington, but warned that China would not be blackmailed or yield to pressure over trade.
A number of recent developments have heightened tension between Beijing and Washington.
The Mattis cancellation was confirmed shortly after a US Navy warship sailed near at least two Chinese-held outposts in the disputed Spratly island chain in the South China Sea on Sunday, challenging Beijing’s maritime claims.
At a UN Security Council meeting on Wednesday, President Donald Trump accused Beijing of seeking to meddle in November’s US midterm congressional elections to stop him and his Republican Party from doing well because of his China trade policies.
Trump provided no evidence for his allegation. At the same meeting, Wang rejected the charge.
The United States and China are also engaged in a worsening trade war that has seen them impose several rounds of tariffs on each other’s exports.
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