China Abruptly Shuts Down Pentagon Request for High-Level Defense Meeting

China on Monday officially shut down the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DOD) request for a meeting between each country’s defense ministers, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin intended to speak in-person with his Chinese counterpart on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Security Dialogue from May 31 to June 4, as he had done in 2022, when such meetings usually materialize without significant planning ahead. However, Beijing issued a last-minute rebuff to the Pentagon in an unusually straightforward rejection as relations between the two defense ministries further sour, according to the WSJ.

“Overnight, the PRC informed the U.S. that they have declined our early May invitation for Secretary Austin to meet with PRC Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu in Singapore this week,” the Pentagon in a statement to the WSJ, using the abbreviation for China’s formal name, the People’s Republic of China.

The Pentagon sought for weeks to secure a meeting between Austin and China’s new defense minsiter, Li Shangfu, even taking a somewhat unusual step of sending a letter directly to Li, according to the WSJ. (Read more from “China Abruptly Shuts Down Pentagon Request for High-Level Defense Meeting” HERE)

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