{"id":86371,"date":"2026-09-05T03:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T03:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/86371\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T03:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T03:18:08","slug":"chinese-military-commander-overseeing-taiwan-operations-meets-u-s-pacom-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/86371\/","title":{"rendered":"Chinese military commander overseeing Taiwan operations meets U.S. PACOM chief"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The head of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2026\/06\/17\/asia-pacific\/politics\/us-indopacom-name-change\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the U.S. military\u2019s Pacific Command (PACOM)<\/a> has met with the Chinese military in charge of operations covering Taiwan and other areas, amid rising tensions over the democratic island.<\/p>\n<p>PACOM chief Adm. Sam Paparo held his first in-person talks with Gen. Yang Zhibin, commander of the Chinese People\u2019s Liberation Army\u2019s Eastern Theater Command, on the sidelines of the Indo-Pacific Chiefs of Defense Conference in Canada, according to the U.S. side.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe two leaders discussed the importance of maintaining open lines of communication between senior U.S. and Chinese military leaders to reduce the risk of miscalculation and promote safe and professional conduct between forces,\u201d PACOM said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The command \u201cis committed to enhancing stability in the region by promoting security cooperation, encouraging peaceful development, responding to contingencies, and deterring aggression,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n<p>A photo released by the U.S. said the meeting had taken place on Aug. 31.<\/p>\n<p>China\u2019s Defense Ministry on Friday also confirmed the meeting, saying that Yang had also held bilateral meetings with representatives from France, Singapore and other countries.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring the conference, the Chinese side delivered a speech, introducing the Chinese military\u2019s position and achievements in maintaining regional peace and stability, proposing that regional countries strengthen defense exchanges and cooperation to jointly address common challenges,\u201d Senior Col. Jiang Bin, a spokesman for the ministry said.<\/p>\n<p>Paparo\u2019s talks with the PLA commander overseeing Taiwan operations came just weeks ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s Sept. 24 meeting with Chinese leader Xi Jinping in Washington. Taiwan remains the most sensitive issue in Sino-U.S. ties, and is expected to be discussed during that meeting.<\/p>\n<p>China claims the democratic island as its own and has vowed to bring it under Beijing\u2019s control, by force if necessary. The U.S. does not have diplomatic relations with Taiwan, but is required by law to provide the island with the means to defend itself, selling billions of dollars in weapons to Taipei.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2026\/05\/17\/asia-pacific\/politics\/trump-taiwan-china-analysis\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trump, however, has called into question decades of precedent<\/a> after his May meeting with Xi in Beijing, when he said he considered a pending $14 billion American arms sales package to Taiwan as leverage in his dealings with the Chinese leader, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2026\/05\/16\/asia-pacific\/politics\/us-china-taiwan-trump-independence\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">labeling it \u201ca very good negotiating chip.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p>China has ramped up its presence east of Taiwan in recent months, part of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.japantimes.co.jp\/news\/2026\/08\/21\/japan\/japan-philippines-china-east-taiwan\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">what experts say is a bid to establish jurisdiction in the waters and counter Japanese-Philippine cooperation<\/a> in the area \u2014 a move that could aid in a blockade or quarantine of the island.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of the U.S. military\u2019s Pacific Command (PACOM) has met with the Chinese military in charge of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12,360,1180,8,26242,488,84,673],"class_list":["post-86371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-japan","tag-china","tag-defense","tag-indo-pacific","tag-japan","tag-pla","tag-taiwan","tag-u-s","tag-u-s-military"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}