- Executed. None.
- Refused, Cancelled, or Ignored. In 2020, the PLA indefinitely postponed the Asia-Pacific Security Dialogue (APSD), an Assistant Secretary of Defense-level policy dialogue. The APSD did not take place in 2021 or 2022. In August, the PRC cancelled the Defense Policy Coordination Talks (DPCT), an annual Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (DASD) level policy dialogue. In August, the PRC also cancelled all Military Maritime Consultative Agreement (MMCA) talks, an operational safety dialogue between U.S. INDOPACOM and PLA naval and air forces, in violation of the U.S-PRC Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) establishing the MMCA. Until 2020, the U.S. and PRC have met regularly since 1998 for MMCA dialogue to strengthen military maritime safety, improve operational safety in the air and sea, and reduce risk between the two militaries. The PLA also declined to hold a Crisis Communications Working Group (CCWG) meeting, a working-level policy dialogue established in 2020 to advance crisis prevention and management mechanisms between DoD and the PLA.
Confidence Building Measures and Academic Exchanges. Confidence Building Measure engagements focus on employing mechanisms for risk reduction, briefing significant policy documents, reducing misunderstanding or misperceptions, POW/MIA accounting, and communication to promote international rules and norms. Similarly, academic exchanges focus on building mutual understanding.
- Executed. In September, the PRC Defense Attaché provided a briefing to the DASD for China, Taiwan, and Mongolia on the PRC’s 2022 Taiwan white paper “The Taiwan Question and China’s Reunification in the New Era.” DoD requested the briefing, consistent with the 2014 Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. Department of Defense and the PRC Ministry of National Defense on Notification of Major Military Activities Confidence Building Measures Mechanism, to reduce misperceptions about PRC intentions for “reunification.” Similarly, DoD provided a briefing to the PRC Defense Attaché on the 2022 annual report on “Military and Security Developments Involving the PRC” and the 2022 National Defense Strategy to share DoD assessments of PRC security developments and discuss areas of perceived misperception. DoD offered these briefings to the PRC to clarify U.S. strategic intent and provide a platform to clarify misperceptions.
- Refused, Cancelled, or Ignored. Since 2019, the PRC has not offered or requested briefings to DoD on security related policy developments under the 2014 MOU between the U.S. Department of Defense and the PRC Ministry of National Defense on Notification of Major Military Activities Confidence Building Measures Mechanism. There were no exchanges or contacts in 2022 between the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) and the PLA.
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OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY OF DEFENSE
Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China
