US–China Military Communications Still in Limbo: White House

Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council John Kirby speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House in Washington on Nov. 20, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Communist China has not yet resumed military-to-military communications with the United States, despite agreeing to do so last month.

Resuming military-to-military communications at every level was a key feature of President Joe Biden’s high-profile summit with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) General Secretary Xi Jinping last month.

“We’re back to direct, open, clear, direct communication on a direct basis,” President Biden said at the time.

However, White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby has said that that is not yet the case.

“I know Secretary [of Defense Lloyd] Austin hasn’t had a restoration of military-to-military comms and we’re very eager to get those going at the senior level and down to the theater commander level,” Mr. Kirby told reporters on Dec. 8.

“We’re eager to get those comms going. I mean, when you talk about all the tensions right now, military-to-military communications are really important to reduce miscalculation and misunderstanding.”

Mr. Kirby said that the slowness in resuming communications might be attributed to the fact that the CCP has not named a new minister of defense following the abrupt firing of Li Shangfu from the post in October.

“My understanding is that there’s no new minister of defense in China,” Mr. Kirby said.

“We certainly urge them to designate somebody soon.”

A number of China’s top military chiefs have vanished with no official explanation since late June, leading some to believe that Mr. Xi has begun a purge of the military.

The communist leader has also promoted scores of new generals in recent years, solidifying his personal power over the military and eliminating potential detractors to his plan to forcibly unite Taiwan with the mainland.

Mr. Li was reportedly taken away for investigation by the military’s anti-corruption agency, along with Liu Guangbin, deputy commander of the Rocket Force, and Zhang Zhenzhong, former deputy commander of the Rocket Force, following allegations that they had privately expressed disbelief that the military could successfully invade Taiwan.

The issue of U.S.–China military communications also centers on Taiwan. The CCP first severed all direct communications between military theater leaders in August of 2022. That effort was part of a suite of retaliatory measures by the Chinese regime against the United States and its partners following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan despite protest from the CCP.

Taiwan, officially called the Republic of China, has governed itself as an independent nation since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. The communist-led People’s Republic of China contends that the island is a part of mainland Chinese territory.

The United States maintains a more ambiguous position on either side’s claims of control over China, maintaining formal diplomatic relations only with the CCP while continuing informal relations with Taiwan and supplying weapons to the island that could be used to counter the regime’s efforts to assert control through military force.