The leader of a US congressional delegation to China yesterday warned of the “risk of a misunderstanding” between the two countries’ militaries as advances in defense technology move at breakneck speed.
US Representative Adam Smith, the most senior Democrat on the US House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, told journalists in Beijing that China needs to talk more about its military with other global powers “for basic de-confliction.”
“We’ve seen this with our ships, our planes, their ships, their planes coming entirely too close to one another,” he told a news conference at the US embassy. “We need to have a better conversation about de-conflicting those things.”
Photo: AFP
“At the height of the Cold War, we had regular conversations, regular treaties with the Soviet Union,” he added.
The four-person delegation — which also includes US representatives Ro Khanna, Chrissy Houlahan and Michael Baumgartner — on Monday met with Chinese Minister of National Defense Dong Jun (董軍), with whom they talked about the importance of “working through our differences” and more candid dialogue, a statement from the US side said.
Dong urged the US to “remove disruptive and restrictive factors” between them, China’s Xinhua state news agency reported.
“AI [artificial intelligence] and drone warfare and cyber and space is moving so rapidly and innovation is happening so quickly. The risk of a misunderstanding of capabilities on one side or the other is great,” Smith said, adding that the two sides need to talk so they “don’t stumble in any sort of conflicts.”
He said they were also having issues communicating with the Chinese side on other issues.
“You have to be willing to start the process of saying: ‘OK, this is where I’m coming from, where are you coming from?’ And we’re not even at that point yet. We’re still sort of talking past each other,” he said.
Smith and Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) struck a warmer tone during a meeting later yesterday, with Wang telling Smith that China’s door was always open to him.
Smith said he saw room for cooperation between the US and China on issues such as combating poverty and public health crises.
“There are many things that we can work together on because the capabilities of China, the capabilities of the US are the greatest in the world,” he said. “If we work together, there’s no end of the things that we can accomplish.”
Additional reporting by AP
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