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.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
RSS