US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Sunday that he does not see an imminent Chinese invasion of Taiwan, but believes that China is trying to impose a "new reality" through its military activities around the island.
"I don't see an imminent invasion," Austin added - in an interview broadcast by CNN, "and what we see are Chinese moves to establish what we can call a new situation on the ground."
The US Secretary stressed that Washington will continue to work with its allies and partners to ensure freedom of navigation in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.
He noted that the United States is working to reopen military communication channels with China.
In August, China suspended cooperation with the United States in a number of areas, including a dialogue between senior military leaders, in response to US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan.
Austin noted that he had telephone and personal contacts with his Chinese counterpart Wei Fenghe, with whom he agreed on the importance of opening communication channels.
"We will do everything we can to keep signaling that we want to open those channels, and I hope that China will start moving a little bit more forward and working with us," he added.
Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan in early August angered China, which then conducted military exercises near the island, and those exercises continued, but on a much smaller scale.
The United States and its allies responded to the exercises by continuing to sail through the region, and a US Navy warship and a Canadian frigate routinely crossed the Taiwan Strait on Sept. 20.
The Taiwan Strait has been a frequent source of military tension since the defeated government of the Republic of China fled to Taiwan in 1949, after losing a civil war with the communists who founded the People's Republic of China.