China tells US to lift sanctions to reopen high-level military talks

An official with the Chinese embassy called on the U.S. on Wednesday to lift sanctions against Beijing in order to reopen high-level military talks between the two superpowers.

“The US side knows the reason for difficulties in its military-to-military relations with China,” spokesperson Liu Pengyu said at a briefing, according to Bloomberg. “It actually imposed unilateral sanctions on China.”

“Such obstacles should be removed before any exchange and cooperation could take place between the two countries,” Liu added.

Earlier this month, Chinese President Xi Jinping rejected Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s offer to set up a crisis communications line between the two countries during his visit to Beijing. In May, China also refused a meeting between the nations’ defense chiefs.

While it wasn’t immediately clear which sanctions Liu was referring to at Wednesday’s briefing, Chinese officials have previously pointed to sanctions against Chinese Minister of National Defense Li Shangfu for their refusal to engage with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Li has been the target of U.S. sanctions since 2018 over his purchase of warplanes and equipment from a Russian defense firm.

The U.S. has repeatedly pushed for “open lines of military-to-military communication” amid increasingly tense relations with China over issues like trade, Taiwan’s independence and a Chinese spy balloon that wandered into American airspace earlier this year.