U.S. and China Tensions Escalate After Unsafe Naval Encounter in Taiwan Strait

The U.S. military has released a video showing a close encounter between a Chinese warship and an American destroyer in the Taiwan Strait over the weekend. The incident is the latest in a long series of flare-ups between the two countries over Taiwan, a self-governing island that China considers to be part of its territory.

The U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement Sunday night that the video shows the Chinese navy ship “execute maneuvers in an unsafe manner.” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said he expects President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping to meet “at some point” in spite of recent tensions between the two countries.

Chinese defense minister Li Shangfu denied a request from his U.S. counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, to hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, a defense summit in Singapore that both attended. Sullivan, however, told CNN he met his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi over the course of two days “and talked through all of the strategic issues in our relationship.”

The two exchanged a handshake Friday, but Austin said this was “no substitute for a substantive engagement.” The U.S. and China have been at odds over a number of issues, including trade, human rights, and the South China Sea. It remains to be seen if the two sides can come to an agreement and ease the tensions between them.