US, China Defense Chiefs Meet in Cambodia

On Tuesday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe in Cambodia as the two sides move to keep tensions under control.

The meeting on the sidelines of a conference of defense ministers in Siem Reap is the first between Austin and Wei since June, ahead of US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan, which sparked anger in Beijing.

However, China and the US have since moved to lower the tension with meetings between senior officials.

On November 14, Joe Biden and Xi Jinping met for three hours at the G20 summit in Bali, the first in-person talks between the leaders of the world's two largest economies since each became president.

This was followed by a meeting between Xi and US Vice President Kamala Harris at the Asia-Pacific Summit in Bangkok.

A White House official mentioned that Harris reinforced Biden's message that "we must maintain open lines of communication to responsibly manage the competition between our countries."

Chinese state media quoted Xi as telling Harris that his meeting with Biden was "strategic and constructive and has important guiding significance for China-US relations in the next stage."