A delegation of about 30 mid-level Chinese military commanders will travel to California and Hawaii this week in the latest step by the US and China to repair military ties after the 2001 collision of a US spy plane and a Chinese military plane off China's coast.
People's Liberation Army (PLA) officers -- many of them division or brigade commanders -- are expected to visit a guided missile destroyer in San Diego, meet Marines at Camp Pendleton, California, and to call on US Pacific Command headquarters in Hawaii.
The US military views the five-day tour, which started yesterday, as a way to demonstrate US capabilities and alleviate any fears China might have about US military might. US commanders also look forward to getting insights into how Chinese military leaders think through numerous discussions planned with the visitors.
"It's a great opportunity for us to talk directly with PLA officers, with senior, mid-grade PLA commanders. You just can't beat it," said US Army Lieutenant Colonel Roger Cavazos, senior China country director at the US Pacific Command.
"It's that direct interaction, that direct contact that really helps us allay mutual suspicions and move forward with this process of engaging and dealing more with the PLA," he said.
It is the third such visit by Chinese officers since US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and his Chinese counterparts agreed last October to increase military exchanges. Earlier exchange programs all but froze after a US spy plane and Chinese fighter jet collided off China's coast in April 2001.
Bilateral military relations are still frosty.
In February, the Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review said China had the greatest potential among major and emerging powers to compete militarily with the US. Many US officials are cautiously monitoring Beijing's decade-long double-digit defense spending increases, questioning what China plans to do with its newly acquired equipment.
In San Diego, the delegation will tour the USS Preble and be briefed on the ship's capabilities and mission. Marines at Camp Pendleton will display an amphibious assault vehicle and some weapons simulation training. In Hawaii, commanders will discuss humanitarian assistance missions.
Still, the visitors will not be treated to tours of everything they requested. An aircraft carrier is not on the itinerary, even though the Chinese asked to visit one and San Diego is the homeport for two of the ships. The US is also not fulfilling a request to see a Stryker armored vehicle.
That is because the US does not want to give Chinese commanders access to more of its military than US commanders have been given during visits to China.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to