Chinese General Counters U.S. Commander during NYC Event

A People’s Liberation Army officer delivered an unexpected, three-minute-long rebuttal to remarks made by the top U.S. commander in the Indo-Pacific, Admiral John Aquilino, at a Manhattan event yesterday evening. The exchange, while cordial, was highly unusual and came amid the U.S. military’s efforts to establish lines of communication with senior Chinese officers, who have been far more reluctant to hold talks.

The exchange followed a speech Aquilino delivered, in which he described Beijing’s trampling of international norms through its militarization of the South China Sea and aggressive territorial claims across the region.