CHINA-US: MATTIS' MEETING WITH PRC DEFENCE MINISTER WEI FENGHE ON OCTOBER 18
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The New York Times reported (October 19) that US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis tried to lower the temperature on the array of hostilities between Washington and Beijing, saying it is up to the militaries of the two competing global superpowers to act as a stabilizing force amid rising political tensions. During an hour-and-a-half meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Mattis tempered some of the sharp edges from Vice President Mike Pence’s pointed critique of China this month. He urged the two militaries to talk through their many differences and even repeated an invitation for Wei Fenghe to visit the United States. But the cordial tone belied deep tensions that showed no signs of abating. China, as it usually does, brushed off Mattis’s complaints about Beijing’s continued militarization of disputed islands in the South China Sea.
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