China and the United States are discussing possible announcements to strengthen military-to-military ties during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s state visit to Washington next week, multiple sources familiar with the discussions told the South China Morning Post.
Another item that is being discussed, and a possible deliverable, is restarting the arms-control talks that were suspended in 2024 over US weapons sales to Taiwan, with the dialogue potentially including military personnel.
In a phone call on Thursday to make final arrangements before the summit, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that both sides should prepare for the next stage of high-level exchange in the spirit of equality, respect and mutual benefit.
“[We should] strengthen communication, advance cooperation and manage differences, respect each other’s core interests, and send a positive message that China and the United States are committed to advancing a constructive and strategically stable relationship and to jointly promoting world peace and development.,” Wang said, according to Xinhua.
The two also discussed the situation in the Middle East, Xinhua reported.
Sources said both sides were discussing ways to activate more military communication channels and bolster the existing ones – marking a rare bright spot in an otherwise fiercely competitive relationship.
They said officials in the two militaries were interacting at various levels, with the frequency and level of engagement increasing substantially in the past few months.
Despite a still-contentious economic relationship marked by tit-for-tat tariffs, export controls and sanctions, military ties between Washington and Beijing have moved in a more positive direction, with regular dialogue and public commitments to maintaining peace and increasing mutual understanding.
Sources said both sides were rebuilding military channels to speak frequently and prevent any misunderstanding and miscalculation about each other’s intentions.
Ending a two-year hiatus, China and the US held command-level talks late last month in Canada, with a meeting between Chinese General Yang Zhibin, commander of the Eastern Theatre Command, and US Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of the Pacific Command.
The US Pacific Command said Yang and Paparo discussed the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between senior American and Chinese military leaders to reduce the risk of miscalculation and to promote safe and professional conduct between forces.
One source said China and the US were seeking military dialogue at three levels. Those talks would be between the two presidents, who are also commanders-in-chief of their countries’ armed forces; also at the ministerial level, including the US Department of Defence and China’s Central Military Commission; and between frontline commanders, in particular the US Pacific Command chief and the PLA’s Eastern Theatre Command chief.
“The presidential-level and frontline commander-level talks are progressing,” the source said, referring to recent meetings between Xi and US President Donald Trump and the talks between Paparo and Yang.
“But actual ministerial-level talks might take a while. One problem has been China’s anti-corruption campaign that [almost] wiped out the CMC, leaving Zhang Shengmin [as the only uniformed official in the body],” he said.
“But we believe they will take place in the near future.”
Another person familiar with the matter said both sides had made clear they wanted new communication channels.
One of the channels could be to revive dedicated arms-control talks between the US State Department and China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which gained momentum in 2023 before being suspended in July 2024 over Washington’s continued arms sales to Taiwan.
A source described the talks as a give from the Chinese side that could eventually be broadened to include military personnel – a long-standing US request – “if things go well”.
Washington had planned to send a more senior Pentagon China official to Beijing’s Xiangshan Forum this week, after last year dispatching only the defence attache. But the official withdrew before the forum, with the US delegation instead led by Brigadier General Stacy Kihara of the embassy in Beijing, leaving the official level unchanged from 2025.
A third source said military-to-military contact under Trump’s second term had become more stable but remained “shallow”. The source said deliverables for the Xi-Trump summit were discussed and locked in when Yang and Paparo met face to face in Canada – their first in-person meeting.
The person called that progress “unique” under a Republican president, describing Trump as “a different sort of Republican president”.
A fourth source said the two militaries were working to follow the “strategic stability” guidance agreed by Trump and Xi during their May meeting in Beijing.
After the summit, the two sides referenced the concept of “strategic stability” in their statements, while differing over its phrasing and interpretation.
In July, a senior Pentagon official – for the first time in more than five years – attended and spoke at a reception at the Chinese embassy in Washington marking the 99th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army.
“Under the leadership of Secretary [Pete] Hegseth, we are actively repairing a once broken military-to-military channel and making clear, steady progress,” said Alvaro Smith, deputy assistant defence secretary for China, Taiwan and Mongolia.
He added that US-China military communication was “stronger than it has been in years” and said Washington was not seeking a “conflict with China”.
“This is how two powerful militaries should engage, and over the last year and a half, we made this a reality.”
US undersecretary of defence for policy Elbridge Colby also hosted Chinese Foreign Vice-Minister Ma Zhaoxu at the Pentagon, later saying on social media that the US interacted with its “Chinese counterparts in a spirit of respect, candour, and realism”.
In another sign of closer military engagement, China is cooperating with the US military to recover the remains of American soldiers who went missing in China during World War II.
As part of those efforts, US defence recovery teams travelled to China in early July to resume searches for missing service members.
The renewed engagement marks a significant shift from the Joe Biden administration, when a series of incidents escalated tensions and left military-to-military communication largely stalled.
Beijing suspended several key military dialogue mechanisms with Washington in 2022 after then-House speaker Nancy Pelosi travelled to Taiwan on a high-profile visit.
Taiwan has been the most sensitive issue between Beijing and Washington. Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary.
Most countries, including the US, do not recognise Taiwan as an independent nation, but Washington opposes any attempt to seize the self-governing island by force and has pledged to supply it with weapons. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
