Austin is pushing to talk to General Xu Qiliang, vice-chair of the Central Military Commission & Politburo member, and not the less powerful defense minister Wei Fenghe

White House has debated what Austin should do. Some officials oppose any contact with the defence minister. Others say Austin could meet the minister and tell him that he wants to hold talks with the top brass, General Xu.

There was some discussion about Austin meeting Wei at the @IISS_org Shangri-la Dialogue defense forum in Singapore next month. But Austin decided against because he wants to speak to General Xu instead.(Event then got cancelled because of Covid concerns).

There is a growing view inside the Biden administration that meetings must be with members of the Politburo who are closer to Xi Jinping, as otherwise there is little chance of having real negotiations that could produce results.

Bottom line for now: Anyone who was holding out for a military version of the Alaska meeting (paging @nathanking ) can put away their fishing rods.

@Dimi @SecDef @JoeBiden He would only call to repeat to his counter-part this pile of propaganda they packed article with, and then they would print articles with narrative that strong American conveyed his "concerns", repeating the same propaganda in the end of this article only with a different start

@Dimi @SecDef @JoeBiden So, not just little old middle powers like Australia getting the cold shoulder

@Dimi @SecDef @JoeBiden US Navy in the West Pacific, talking about "red lines" 🤡

@Dimi @arappeport @SecDef @JoeBiden China like "new phone, who dis"

@Dimi @SecDef @JoeBiden @varyarpol

@Dimi @SecDef @JoeBiden May be it's a racist thing's..

@Dimi @SecDef @JoeBiden US: We don’t want wars. China: They don’t want wars!

@Dimi @blakehounshell @SecDef @JoeBiden China can't manipulate this admin. The last one was easy pickings.

@Dimi @911CORLEBRA777 @SecDef @JoeBiden Well then, communicate by naval semaphore off their various “coastlines” in the S. China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. That should generate a reply back.

@Dimi @SecDef @JoeBiden US be like: 😂

@Dimi @SecDef @JoeBiden Ask Hunter to set it up

@Dimi @SecDef @JoeBiden China games.