China says US must ‘correct its mistaken actions’ before top defence chiefs can meet

The US should also “take concrete actions to create necessary conditions for conversation between both sides”, Mao added in response to a question on whether the refusal was due to the US sanctions.

Analysts had expected that Li would refuse a meeting with his US counterpart as long as he remained sanctioned by Washington.

The rejection comes as high-level bilateral talks in recent weeks appeared to have gained momentum. Those talks included Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao’s meetings last week with US trade representative Katherine Tai and Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo.

The meetings followed “candid talks” between US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi for two days earlier this month, in which they discussed the hot button issues of Taiwan and Russia’s war against Ukraine.

“[But] the PRC’s concerning unwillingness to engage in meaningful military-to-military discussions will not diminish [the Defence Department’s] commitment to seeking open queues of communication with the People’s Liberation Army,” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder said, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

The sanctions were imposed in 2018 for what Washington said were violations by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in helping to transfer fighter jets and air-defence missile systems to China from Russia.

Officials in US President Joe Biden’s administration insisted that the sanctions would not prevent US officials from meeting Li in Singapore, a point made by US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral John Aquilino when he said last week that high-level, military-to-military talks between the two countries were needed “to mitigate risk and to avoid miscalculation”.