US Pacific commander speaks with Chinese counterpart

U.S. Adm. Samuel Paparo, head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, spoke with his Chinese counterpart Monday night as both countries seek to maintain military-to-military communications.

Paparo spoke via videoconference with Gen. Wu Yanan, the commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s Southern Theater Command.

The two military leaders discussed the importance of maintaining communication to avoid miscalculation, according to a readout of the call.

Paparo also stressed that the Chinese military should reconsider what he called coercion and aggression in the South China Sea and elsewhere and to comply with international laws.

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command published a photo of Paparo during the call.

The meeting is one of several held by U.S. and Chinese military officials since a November 2023 meeting between President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping near San Francisco, in which they pledged to re-open military communications that had been suspended for more than a year at the time.

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also met with Xi during a high-stakes trip to Beijing last month.

Tensions have remained high between the U.S. and China over the self-governing island nation of Taiwan, which Beijing claims as its own, and escalating conflict in the South China Sea between Chinese naval forces and the Philippines, which Washington supports.