China Still Hasn’t Answered US Request for Meeting with Defense Secretary

Beijing still hasn’t given a formal response to the US request for a meeting between Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Chinese counterpart Li Shangfu at an upcoming forum in Singapore, a senior US defense official said Thursday.

“Secretary Austin and the Department of Defense initiated a request to meet with General Li, and that request has not been answered one way or another,” Ely Ratner, assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, said at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “The ball is in their court at this point.”