Although the more than one hour meeting between Chinese Defense Minister Dong Jun and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on Friday was the first face-to-face meeting between the two countries' defense chiefs since 2022, both chose to cut short the formalities and go straight to the core issues impacting Sino-US security relations — the Taiwan question and the South China Sea disputes.

The US-backed, pro-independence Taiwan administrative head, Lai Ching-te, taking office on May 20, and the Philippines' increasingly provocative moves in the South China Sea must have prompted the two sides to hold the meeting. That the conversation the two defense chiefs had on the phone in April covered the same subjects points to the pressing need to manage the two potential flashpoints.

The wide attention the meeting has drawn shows the international community, too, wants the two countries to take advantage of such opportunities to defuse the tensions in the Asia-Pacific region, which the United States has raised with its strategy to contain China.

A day before the Friday meeting, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and Principal Deputy National Security Advisor Jon Finer met with visiting Chinese Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Ma Zhaoxu in Washington, with the three senior diplomats discussing, among other things, issues such as military-to-military communication and the possibility of advancing cooperation in areas of common interest.

Although such exchanges are, as both sides claim, building on the summit of the two heads of state in San Francisco in November 2023, the dire situation across the Taiwan Strait and the increasingly provocative actions of the Philippines, along with the fraught bilateral economic relations, are the main issues that should be urgently addressed but cannot be because the US rarely, if ever, matches its words with deeds.

The US is equally hypocritical on trade and technology issues. Although it claims to uphold fair competition, free trade and economic globalization, in reality it practices trade protectionism and economic coercion, not to mention the punitive tariffs it imposes on Chinese goods and its restrictions on high-tech, including chips, exports to China.

However, the Taiwan question is at the core of the Sino-US dispute. Yet the US has been practicing strategic ambiguity over the question for the past four decades, despite knowing full well that China brooks no interference in the Taiwan question, because it is China's internal affair.

At the ongoing Shangri-La Dialogue, which has brought together the defense and security chiefs of over 50 countries and regions, Austin, according to reports, is likely to urge allies to work closely with the US and be prepared to respond to emerging challenges and threats in the "Indo-Pacific" region and beyond. In contrast, Dong is expected to expound on China's global security vision, calling on countries to not be dragged into major powers' geopolitical games and, instead, safeguard peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific.

In fact, China has always counterbalanced the US' destructive actions with constructive endeavors. It is clear the different kinds of future their forked paths can lead to.