U.S. and Chinese defense officials said they planned further talks after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his counterpart sparred over Taiwan and other regional security issues for almost an hour.
Both sides emerged from the first in-person encounter between Austin and Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe on Friday in Singapore citing plans for additional discussions. A Chinese military spokesman described the meeting as a start toward resuming a normal dialogue, although a senior U.S. defense official said no date for follow-up meetings had been set.
The two defense chiefs tussled over Taiwan, which the U.S. official said consumed a bulk of the meeting on the sidelines of Asia’s biggest security conference, the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue. Wei condemned the latest American move to sell arms to the democratically run island, Wu Qian, the Chinese defense spokesman, told reporters.