The U.S. chief of naval operations and his Chinese counterpart will hold an hour long video teleconference Thursday, days after Beijing was angered by a U.S. warship's patrol within a 12-mile limit around a man-made Chinese island in the South China Sea, a U.S. official said.
The meeting was initiated by both Admiral John Richardson and Admiral Wu Shengli to discuss recent operations in the South China Sea and naval ties between the two countries, the official said.
It will be the third video teleconference held between a U.S. naval operations chief and the Chinese equivalent.
The USS Lassen's patrol on Tuesday was the most significant U.S. challenge yet to 12-nautical-mile territorial limits China claims around artificial islands it has built in the Spratly archipelago.
Separately, the English-language China Daily newspaper reported that Admiral Harry Harris, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, would visit Beijing next week. It cited an unnamed source and gave no further details.
See full text here.