The top US military officer begins a four-day trip to China today in another sign of warming military ties between the two countries after a break in relations following a US$6.3 billion US arms deal with Taiwan.
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen left Washington on Friday afternoon for a visit to Beijing at the invitation of his counterpart, Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) General Chen Bingde (陳炳德), who visited Washington earlier this year.
“Admiral Mullen looks forward to continuing the engagement and dialogue that began during General Chen Bingde’s visit to the United States in May,” Pentagon spokesman Colonel David Lapan said.
Mullen had a wide range of meetings scheduled with senior military officials, including visits to PLA military units, Lapan said. He is also scheduled to speak to students at Renmin University in Beijing.
Mullen’s visit to China is the first by a chairman of the US Joint Chiefs since his predecessor, General Peter Pace, went there in 2007. Mullen’s last visit to China also was in 2007, when he was chief of naval operations.
US-China military ties were severed in January last year after US President Barack Obama’s administration announced a US$6.3 billion arms deal with Taiwan that included Patriot anti-missile systems and Apache attack helicopters.
Military links remained severed through much of the year, even as Mullen and former US defense secretary Robert Gates, who stepped down last week, called for regular contacts to improve trust and avoid misunderstandings that could spin out of control.
US officials have watched with concern as China has displayed a growing military assertiveness and begun developing weapons that could be used to undermine US strengths in the region, from anti-satellite missiles to radar-evading jet fighters.
Military ties between the two countries resumed late last year and have picked up pace since Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) visited Barack Obama in January.
In addition to the Mullen-Chen visits, Gates visited China in January and met with his counterpart, Chinese Minister of Defense Liang Guanglie (梁光烈), at the annual Shangri-La Security Dialogue in Singapore last month.
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