https://ift.tt/uRtLh4 Sino-U.S. military dialogue that coincided with a defense budget increase this month reveal a key piece of President Joe Biden’s China policy—talk and prepare to fight all at once—analysts believe.
The U.S. Senate voted Wednesday for a version of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that authorizes $770 billion in defense spending, $25 billion more than Biden requested and including $7.1 billion for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative aimed at checking Chinese expansion.
And from Tuesday through Thursday, representatives from U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, navy and air force met virtually with counterparts from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s navy and air force for talks on staying safe in Asia’s contested waterways.
“U.S. military, they do what they have to do, like conduct Freedom of Navigation operations in the South China Sea, but they also make sure there are guardrails, they continue to keep the lines of communication open with the Chinese,” said Aaron Rabena, research fellow at the Asia-Pacific Pathways to Progress Foundation in Metro Manila.
Washington increased in 2019 the number of warship passages through the South China Sea to 10 per year, a number that it repeated in 2020. U.S. officials describe the passages as “Freedom of Navigation operations.”
China and the United States are in what scholars describe as a “great power competition,” with Washington particularly targeting the other side’s expansion in the East and South China seas where the U.S. counts nearby countries as geopolitical allies. Biden will carry on the competition but hopes to stop any violent flareups, analysts say.
Negotiate while bolstering defense
The version of the NDAA bill passed Wednesday included a statement of congressional support for the defense of Taiwan and a ban on any Defense Department procurement of goods produced with forced labor from China’s restive and largely Muslim Xinjiang region. The act now requires Biden’s signature.