US defence chief looks to China talks to ease rifts

Reuters

Gates said his visit suggested China was seeking to improve the tone between the two countries’ military forces ahead of Hu’s long-planned visit to the United States from Jan. 18 to 21. —Photo by AFP

WASHINGTON: Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he wants to ease security strains with Beijing through talks with top Chinese military officials on Monday that will set the tone for a presidential summit. 
Gates’ trip to China comes a week ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s visit to the United States for a Jan. 19 summit with President Barack Obama.
US officials hope Gates’ visit will forge progress on sticky security issues that have raised worries that Beijing, with its growing economic and military strength, is increasingly willing to defy US objectives.
Those include a US push for Beijing to take a more assertive stand on Iran’s nuclear programme, to do more to rein in North Korea and to become less secretive about the modernisation of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).
Gates said his visit suggested China was seeking to improve the tone between the two countries’ military forces ahead of Hu’s long-planned visit to the United States from Jan. 18 to 21.
“I think that the Chinese clear desire that I come first — come to China before President Hu goes to Washington — was an indication of their interest in strengthening this (military) part of the relationship in terms of helping further set the environment and the tone for Washington,”
Gates told reporters accompanying him on a flight to Beijing over the weekend.
“My hope is that this visit will strengthen what I think both presidents believe is an underdeveloped part of the relationship,” said Gates.
Military ties are among the most brittle links between the United States and China, grappling with trade strains, security distrust and human rights disputes that have unsettled relations between the world’s biggest economy and the emerging number two.
Fear Of Mishaps 
While military links do not feature in day-to-day dealings between Beijing and Washington, officials fear China’s growing strength raises the risk of military mishaps flaring into volatile disputes that could destabilise overall ties.
“In the ups and downs in Chinese-US relations, military ties are always the first to suffer casualties,” said Jingdong Yuan, a professor at the University of Sydney in Australia who specializes in Chinese security policy.
“You need to have greater communications and regular channels of communication to reduce the misperceptions and miscalculations and avoid accidents,” Yuan said in a telephone interview.
US and Chinese military ties were curtailed for much of 2010 after Beijing protested Obama’s proposed arms sale to Taiwan, the self-ruled island China deems an illegitimate breakaway.
Gates’ trip is the most visible demonstration that relations have steadied. But security distrust remains deep.
The United States is far the world’s dominant military power, but China’s growing spending on defence has narrowed the gap to the point where some in Washington worry that the US security stake in Asia could be eroded.
China set its military budget for 2010 at 532.1 billion yuan ($80 billion), a 7.5 per cent rise on the previous year.
It has yet to unveil its budget for 2011. The Obama administration set the US defence budget for the fiscal year of 2011 at $708 billion.
In 2010, Beijing bristled at US joint exercises with South Korea in seas near China, and denounced US pressure on Beijing to solve territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
US weapons sales to Taiwan remain a constant sore spot for Beijing.
US officials have noted quick advances in China’s anti-ship ballistic missile programme, which could challenge US aircraft carriers. China may also be preparing to launch its first aircraft carrier in 2011, faster than some estimates, and new photos indicate it has a prototype of a stealth fighter jet.