US Defense Secretary Robert Gates could travel to China this year, the Pentagon said on Thursday, following signs from Beijing of a willingness to resume military ties suspended over an arms sale to Taiwan.
China froze military-to-military contacts after US President Barack Obama’s administration in January notified Congress of a potential US$6.4 billion arms package for Taiwan. Beijing then took the extraordinary step of turning down a proposed fence-mending trip by Gates in June.
“The Chinese have clearly signaled their interest in resuming military-to-military discussions and we are right now exploring how best to do that,” Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said.
Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) is likely to visit the US next year, and Morrell said that Hu and Obama have wanted the two militaries to engage more closely to avoid misunderstandings.
“We have not been meeting the mandate set forth by our respective presidents. So we do look forward to resuming military-to-military communication, exchanges, discussions with the Chinese,” Morrell said.
Asked whether Gates might be amenable to traveling to China before the end of the year, Morrell said: “Sure.”
He did caution, however, that the end of the year was fast approaching and there was little free time on the defense secretary’s schedule.
“There was an invitation from the secretary’s [Chinese] counterpart for him to travel there. It was then, I guess, retracted,” Morrell said. “So if it is being extended again, as it appears to be, we’re going to certainly look for the possibility of trying to schedule that before the end of the year.”
Throughout this year, ties between Washington and Beijing have been tested over US arms sales to Taiwan, Internet policy, Tibet, China’s currency and Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea. The gaping US trade deficit with China, worth US$226.9 billion last year, has also fueled trade disputes.
US-South Korean military drills have also triggered an outcry in China, despite assurances that they are aimed at North Korea, not China. The exercises are a response to the sinking of a South Korean warship and are meant to serve as a deterrent.
The US military has repeatedly expressed concern about its lack of understanding about what is driving China’s rapid military buildup. In a report last month, the Pentagon said Beijing was expanding its military edge over Taiwan, increasing the lethality of its short-range ballistic missiles.
The report also said China, a growing world economic and military power, was unlikely to be able to deploy large-scale military forces in high-intensity combat operations far from China until well into the next decade.
Morrell stressed that Gates did not want “engagement for the sake of engagement.”
“What we are looking for is a resumption of productive, transparent, military-to-military engagement so that we can both gain a better understanding of what our ambitions are, what our intentions are when it comes to our military budgets, how we operate, where we operate and so forth,” he said.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not