美中对话暂时缓解双方关系

A frank dialogue between Chinese and U.S. defense chiefs has taken the two countries into a temporary calm period after a series of rival military moves in the South China Sea.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis agreed with his Chinese counterpart, Wei Fenghe, on Friday to continue progress on a "crisis communications and deconfliction framework to reduce risk," the Defense Department said in a statement. Their meeting touched on Beijing's military expansion in the South China Sea.

The U.S. side asked China to stop militarizing the sea, while the Chinese told the U.S. government to quit sending naval ships near China-held islets and said it would oppose any acts to split off those land forms. But both agreed that the military relationship "could be a stabilizing factor" in broader Sino-U.S. ties, the Defense Department added.

Analysts said dialogue such as this one in Washington normally brings about a calm period in Sino-U.S. military ties after a series of tougher moves, such as a near ship collision in the sea in September. They predicted the calm would last at least through a Nov. 30-Dec. 1 meeting between the two countries' presidents.

Neither Beijing nor Washington is expected to stop the activities that annoy the other. But both sides will "cool down" because of the meetings, said Collin Koh, a maritime security research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.

"It is very hard to ignore the fact that they don't actually agree on many things that are in fact the root problems of what we see in the South China Sea," he said.

Countries in Southeast Asia worried about the near collision, while both China and the United States want to keep up relations with those countries to counter the influence of the other power.

"I think there is every reason, every incentive for both [the] U.S. and China to at least create the appearance that they are both keen to stabilize the South China Sea," Koh said.

It has angered the others, all militarily weaker, over the past decade by building infrastructure on disputed islets for bombers, missiles and radar systems.

The United States has no claim to the 3.5 million-square-kilometer sea but wants it open internationally for freedom of navigation. The U.S. Navy routinely sends vessels into the sea. It does annual joint naval drills with the Philippines, and in 2016 the U.S. government lifted a ban on selling certain weapons to Vietnam. It also uninvited China to the multi-country RIMPAC wartime exercises in June and July.

At the meetings Friday, Mattis "raised the importance of all maritime forces conducting their operations in a safe and professional manner in accordance with international standards and norms," the statement said. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi also attended.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet in Argentina during a summit of the G-20 major economies, and some of the talks last week were "centering" on that summit, a U.S. State Department statement said. Heads of state generally try to avoid upsetting each other before summits.

Xi and Trump are more likely to touch on their 10-month-old trade dispute than the maritime dispute, some believe. The U.S. government has approved import tariffs this year covering $250 billion in Chinese goods.

"I don't think Trump will say much about the South China Sea when he meets Xi, because that meeting is ostensibly about trade," said Sean King, vice president of the Park Strategies political consultancy in New York.

But the two leaders have the options of exchanging views and making upbeat pledges about the maritime dispute, Koh said.

中国和美国国防部长之间的坦率对话使得两国在南中国海发生一系列敌对军事行动之后，进入一个暂时平静的时期。

美国国防部在一份声明中表示，国防部长马蒂斯周五与中国防长魏凤和就继续推动“为降低风险而进行危机沟通和消除冲突的框架”达成一致。双方会谈触及到北京在南中国海的军事扩张。

美国方面要求中国停止军事化，而中方则要求美国政府不要向中国占据的小岛附近派遣海军舰艇，并表示将反对任何分割这些岛礁的行为。但美国国防部补充说，两国都认为军事关系能够成为更广泛的中美关系的“稳定因素”。

分析人士表示，像在华盛顿举行的这种对话通常会在经历一系列较为强硬的动作之后给美中军事关系带来一段平静时期，例如今年9月份在南中国海几乎发生碰撞冲突。分析人士预测这种平静至少会持续到11月30日至12月1日两国首脑举行会晤。

预计北京和华盛顿都不会停止激怒对方的活动。但新加坡南洋理工大学安全问题专家高瑞连表示，双方会由于这些会议而变得“冷静下来”。

他说：“很难忽视的事实是他们在很多事情上意见不一，而这些事情实际上正是我们在南中国海看到的问题的根本。”

东南亚国家担心那次几近发生的碰撞，而中国和美国都想与这些国家保持关系，以对抗对方的影响力。

高瑞连说，“我认为，无论是美国还是中国都有充分的理由和动力，至少表面上展现出他们都热衷于维持南中国海稳定。”

过去十年来，中国在有争议的岛屿上建造了用于轰炸机、导弹和雷达系统的基础设施，激怒了这些在军事上较弱的国家。

美国没有提出过对这片350万平方公里海域的声索权，但希望它向国际上开放以实现航行自由。美国海军经常派遣船只进入这片海域，每年与菲律宾进行联合海军演习，美国政府还在2016年解除了向越南出售某些武器的禁令。在今年6月和7月举行的多国环太平洋军事演习中，美国也没有邀请中国参加。

美国国防部的声明说，马蒂斯防长在周五的会谈中“提出了所有海上力量需按照国际标准和规范以安全和专业的方式开展行动的重要性”。

美国国务卿蓬佩奥和中国国务委员杨洁篪也出席了会议。

美国国务院发表声明说，美国总统特朗普和中国国家主席习近平将在20国集团峰会期间在阿根廷举行会谈。上周的一些谈判以这次峰会为主。国家元首们通常会在举行峰会前尽量避免给对方带来不悦。

有人认为，习近平和特朗普很可能谈及已有10个月之久的贸易争端，而不是南中国海问题。美国政府今年批准对涉及2500亿美元的中国商品加征关税。

不过新加坡南洋理工大学的高瑞连表示，两位领导人可以选择就海上争端交换意见和做出乐观的承诺。