Amid Tensions, Mattis Arrives in China to ‘Have a Conversation’

BEIJING — Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis arrived Tuesday in Beijing in the first visit to China by a Pentagon chief in four years. It comes as Beijing and Washington navigate a burgeoning trade war and tensions related to the Chinese military’s buildup in the South China Sea.

Mattis has stressed a diplomatic approach to the trip, saying Sunday, “I’m going there to have a conversation.”

“I want to understand how they see the strategic relationship developing,” Mattis told reporters that day before the first stop of his trip, in Alaska. “And so I want to go in, right now, without basically poisoning the well at this point, as if my mind’s already made up.”

Still, less than a month ago he publicly accused China of “intimidation and coercion” for placing surface-to-air missiles and other military equipment on contested islands in the South China Sea. To varying degrees, the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam and Malaysia all stake claims to parts of the sea.

Mattis is expected to meet President Xi Jinping and other high-ranking Chinese officials in the coming days before traveling on to South Korea and Japan.

The defense secretary offered few specifics about the planned discussions in China. Some will almost certainly focus on frictions over the contested islands, the relationship between the two countries’ militaries and the recent diplomacy between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, in which Xi has been eager to play a part.

As discussions between North Korea and the United States continue, China has relied on its economic leverage to ensure that the North stays in its orbit. Earlier this month, after Kim visited Beijing, Chinese state media portrayed him as a forward-looking leader eager to develop his country.

In their talks with Mattis, Chinese officials are also sure to bring up U.S. support for Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of its territory.

China has also long said that the contested islands in the South China Sea — some of them now man-made bases replete with air strips and radar towers — are indisputably its own and that they are outfitted with military equipment solely for self-defense.

Last month, Mattis rescinded China’s invitation to a large multinational naval exercise known as Rim of the Pacific because of its growing presence in the region and he threatened larger consequences. Days later, two U.S. warships sailed within 12 nautical miles of Chinese-claimed islands in an attempt to assert the U.S. stance on freedom of navigation in international waters, a move that Beijing sharply condemned.

The Pentagon said the exercise had been planned months in advance.

During his presidential campaign, Trump told The New York Times that China was moving in the South China Sea “to build a military fortress the likes of which perhaps the world has not seen.” He added, in the March 2016 interview, “They do that at will because they have no respect for our president and they have no respect for our country.”

In the first year of his presidency, Trump did little to combat Chinese influence in the area, focusing more on trade. In recent weeks, Trump’s threats of sweeping tariffs and China’s tit-for-tat responses have raised fears of an all-out trade war between the world’s two largest economies.