China rejected a meeting with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin during a conference in southeast Asia this week, marking the latest turn in a tumultuous relationship between the two countries’ defense leaders.
Austin sought to meet with his Chinese counterpart, Dong Jun, at the ASEAN Defense Ministers’ Meeting-Plus in Laos as part of a long-standing effort to maintain military lines of communication between the US and the People’s Republic of China. But China did not accept the offer, pointing to a recent Taiwan arms sale as their rationale.
