| China proposes hot line with U.S. |
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| Saturday, 24 March 2007 | ||||||
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China's Anti-Satellite Missile Test worries US BEIJING: China's recent test of an antisatellite weapon sent a confusing message to the world about its military intentions, but the United States and China are slowly building stronger military-to-military ties, the top-ranking United States military officer said. He called his meetings "encouraging" but said he did not get concrete answers to his questions. "I used the example of the antisatellite test as how sometimes the international community can be confused, because it was a surprise that China did that, and it wasn't clear what their intent was," Pace told reporters in Beijing. In January, China fired a medium- range ballistic missile into space, destroying one of its own aging weather satellites. The test, which China said nothing about for more than a week after it occurred, raised alarms in Washington that the Chinese military might seek to cripple the Pentagon's heavily satellite- dependent communications, missile guidance and navigation systems in the event of a future conflict. The United States and the former Soviet Union also destroyed satellites in space. They ceased such tests in the 1980s, partly because the debris left in orbit posed a threat to space vehicles. China has maintained that it has only peaceful intentions in space and has declined to explain its missile test in any detail, calling it only "a scientific experiment in space." Pace, who arrived Thursday for his first visit to China, discussed overall military relations between the two powers with Guo Boxiong, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan and Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, among other officials. China put forward proposals to strengthen communication and understanding between the two militaries, Pace said. They included sending Chinese cadets to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point as well as participating in joint humanitarian and rescue-at-sea exercises. Pace said he agreed to study the proposals. He said the two sides were still discussing setting up a military hot line that could facilitate communications during an emergency. "The Chinese military understands as well as I do that the opportunity to pick up the phone and smooth out misunderstandings quickly is a very important part of relations," Pace said. The exchange highlights a modest warming trend between the two militaries, which grew chilly in the early days the Bush administration. Administration officials, including the former defense secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, initially said they saw little value in extending a hand to the secretive Chinese military, which they said provided little in the way of confidence-promoting disclosures. Top officers from both countries have picked up the pace of visits in the past two years, but the Pentagon has pressed China without obvious success to explain its rapid military buildup. Source: International Herald Tribune
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