Signalling via seniority: Here's how US plans to tell China it wants deeper military engagement

China is set to host the 11th Beijing Xiangshan Forum from September 12-14. At the country’s top annual security forum, the United States is eager to show that it prioritises engagement at the military level with China , even at a time of heightened tensions.

Michael Chase, the US’ Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia, is set to be a part of the delegation attending the event in Beijing, Reuters reported, citing a US official.

Messaging via seniority of delegation

The nuance of Washington’s signalling to Xi Jinping’s administration lies in Chase’s seniority.

He is more senior than the US official who attended the Xiangshan Forum last year. Washington sent Xanthi Carras, China country director in the Office of the Undersecretary of Defence, when the forum resumed last year after a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic.

Reuters, cited the official as saying that Chase’s attendance was not unprecedented, since the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for China, Chad Sbragia, attended the forum in 2019. Sending someone of Chase’s rank to such a forum also aligns with the Pentagon’s historical norms.

In the past, Chase co-chaired US-China military talks in Washington in January - the first such working-level talks since 2022, when most bilateral military engagement was suspended after then-US Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.

There is hope that someone of a rank as high as Chase’s going to the Beijing Xiangshan Forum could signal deeper working-level engagement with China amid regional disputes.

Points of contention between China, US

Taiwan and the South China Sea are key points of contention in the US-China relationship. Beijing and Washington have called these “core issues” and have so far appeared unwilling to compromise on them.

China regularly criticises deployments by the US in the Asia-Pacific region. Here, placement of long-range missiles in the Philippines has been an area that China has actively and aggressively raised its voice against. Beijing is also opposed to US arms sales to the democratically-governed island territory of Taiwan, which China considers its own.

The US, on the other hand, has expressed concerns about China’s “aggressive” actions in the South China Sea, its frequent military manoeuvers in the air and waters surrounding Taiwan, and what it perceives as the lack of transparency in China’s nuclear buildup.

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan stated that no new agreements had been reached in the South China Sea during his visit to China last week.

With inputs from Reuters