US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe on Tuesday (November 22nd) in Cambodia, as the two sides struggle to contain tensions. This meeting, on the sidelines of a conference of defense ministers in Siem Reap, is the first between the two men since June, before the visit of Nancy Pelosi, a major figure in American politics, to Taiwan, the island claimed by Beijing, which had infuriated the Chinese authorities.
China had judged Nancy Pelosi’s visit in early August to be a major provocation. She was then the highest-ranking US official to visit the island in decades. Nancy Pelosi has since announced to renounce the post of leader of the Democrats in the future American House of Representatives, where the Republicans obtained the majority. Since then, China and the United States have tried to lower the temperature by organizing meetings between senior officials.
On November 14, Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met for three hours at a G20 20 summit in Bali, Indonesia. They were the first face-to-face talks between the leaders of the world’s two largest economies since becoming presidents. This meeting was followed by a meeting between Xi Jinping and US Vice President Kamala Harris at the Asia-Pacific Summit in Bangkok.