Beijing says the two militaries have agreed to finish a memorandum of understanding on “crisis communication and prevention” as soon as possible. Washington had not publicly confirmed it, according to the South China Morning Post. The claim comes from China’s foreign ministry, which said so on Saturday, September 26, after President Xi Jinping’s three-day state visit to Washington from September 23 to 25.
The SCMP reported before the summit that both sides would announce steps to activate more military communication channels and strengthen the existing ones. The memorandum, if it materializes, would give commanders another way to manage dangerous encounters across the Indo-Pacific.
What Beijing listed, and what it left out
The foreign ministry’s readout said the militaries would also keep searching for missing service members in China. The military pact was announced separately from eight other “deliverables and understandings” covering trade, artificial intelligence and counternarcotics cooperation. On AI, the ministry said the countries would set up a China-U.S. AI Dialogue to exchange views on risks and benefits, with another exchange scheduled for November 2026, and a bilateral channel for AI incidents.
Notably, there is no deadline beyond “as soon as possible.” And the announcement did not say whether the memorandum would create a new hotline, set procedures for using existing connections, or define which incidents would trigger crisis consultations. That matters. The two militaries already have consultation arrangements and senior communication channels, so the open question is what the paper adds to them.
Xi’s line at the arrival ceremony
Xi made the case himself during the visit. “Our two militaries should maintain regular dialogue, and improve mechanisms for crisis communication and prevention,” he said at the arrival ceremony, in remarks published by the foreign ministry. He tied this to a wider appeal to avoid confrontation: “we can certainly find the right path for our two great countries to get along on this planet we both call home.”
Military officials followed the talks closely, the SCMP reported. One described the public dialogue between the two capitals as a “confidence builder for everybody.” Another US military official said the American goal is “to enable both strategic stability and deterrence by denial, and I believe respectful and professional communication with China does not preclude that.”
A thaw that came first
The proposed memorandum follows renewed contact between senior commanders. In late August, Admiral Samuel Paparo, the senior US commander in the Indo-Pacific, met General Yang Zhibin, commander of the People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theatre Command, at a defense conference in Victoria, British Columbia. The SCMP reported that it was their first meeting and ended a two-year interruption in theater-level contact. They discussed keeping lines open among senior leaders to reduce the risk of miscalculation and encourage safe, professional conduct by their forces.
For now the pact exists on Beijing’s account alone. What the text eventually says is what will count.
Sources
- US and China seek new military pact after Trump-Xi summit
- Beijing says US, China to pursue military crisis-communication pact | South China Morning Post
