China, US seek to rebuild military relationship

Xu Caihou (right), vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, and US Defense Secretary Robert Gates listen to the national anthems of both countries during a welcome ceremony on Tuesday at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia.

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US Defense Secretary Robert Gates called for lasting dialogue with China's military after years of "on-again, off-again" talks as he welcomed a top Chinese general to the Pentagon on Tuesday.

The 75-minute meeting between Gates and Xu Caihou, vice chairman of China's Central Military Commission, represented the highest-level visit by a Chinese military official since 2006.

It was also a sign of improving relations with China's armed forces after China halted military-to-military dialogue with the US last year to protest a US$6.5 billion US arms sale to Taiwan.

"We need to break the on-again, off-again cycle of our military-to-military relationship," said Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell, summarizing Gates' comments.

In the past there were cases "where we make strides, we have a good visit, we agree to cooperate on certain things and then there will be a hiccup that will cause there to be a suspension" in military-to-military ties, Morrell said.

He described the meeting as positive and issued a statement detailing ways in which the two countries' militaries would deepen cooperation. He announced that Gates also accepted Xu's invitation to visit China.

Xu said in Washington on Monday that Sino-US military relations have improved since the January inauguration of President Barack Obama, who will visit China next month.

At his meeting with Gates, Xu reiterated long-standing "obstacles" to deepening ties with the US military, a US official said. These include the Taiwan issue, as well as US surveillance of waters off China.

But the US defense official said the broader US message was that dialogue with China was essential.

"We ought to be able to talk about those policy disagreements in an appropriate setting," he said. "But the important thing is that we shouldn't let those policy disagreements lead us to take actions that might precipitate a crisis or undermine the entire bilateral relationship."

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