released by ASPI today<\/a> takes stock of Sino\u2013US military contacts over the past 15 years and provides some preliminary assessments of the evolution and implications of this critical aspect of perhaps the most important bilateral relationship in the world today. It seeks to achieve three objectives. First, it identifies, compares and discusses the rationales, expectations and approaches of the two militaries regarding the relationship. Second, it outlines and reviews bilateral Sino\u2013US military contacts from 2001 to 2016, essentially covering both the George W Bush and Barack Obama administrations. Third, it analyses and evaluates US\u2013China military ties over that period and provides some explanations of their promises, progress and pitfalls.<\/p>\nUS interests and objectives in engaging the Chinese military include gaining a better understanding of the armed forces of a rising power, hoping to shape China\u2019s perspectives and foster a stable and cooperative relationship for regional stability, and developing and putting into place both confidence building and crisis management mechanisms to minimise and avoid unintended incidents and prevent disputes from escalating to major military confrontation. At the same time, as the PLA develops and deploys greater military capabilities and Chinese foreign policy grows more assertive, the US military is responding by deploying major defence assets and forces to the Indo\u2013Pacific region, developing future battle-winning capabilities, and strengthening alliances and forming security partnerships in the region.<\/p>\n
The PLA, on the other hand, has often considered and implemented bilateral exchanges as part of the broader agenda of promoting US\u2013China relations as a \u2018new type of major-power relationship\u2019. It also seeks to demonstrate that it\u2019s an equal of the US military while using the expansion and suspension of military ties to influence the US\u2019s policies, including on arms sales to Taiwan, and its alliances in the region. Clearly, this deep strategic distrust and growing rivalry set limits to the depth and scope of military exchanges. Nonetheless, even as the two militaries may be preparing for the next war with each other, they have nonetheless found common interests in cooperating in a range of non-traditional security areas, such as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, search and rescue, peacekeeping, military medicine, and anti-piracy\/terrorism operations.<\/p>\n
The past 15 years have witnessed ups and downs in bilateral military ties, which began with a number of incidents and crises, resulting in the temporary suspension of ties at the beginning of the Bush administration. The 9\/11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and the subsequent shift in US strategy towards combating global terrorism and seeking cooperation with China paved the way for the normalisation of military-to-military contacts between the PLA and the Pentagon. Since then, bilateral military ties have gradually been institutionalised through high-level visits, defence dialogues, functional exchanges and cooperation in bilateral and multilateral contexts. Both US and Chinese leaders clearly recognise the importance of developing a stable bilateral military relationship and, indeed, have at times admonished their top military brass to enhance mutual understanding and explore and expand areas of cooperation.<\/p>\n
Deep structural constraints impose limitations on both the scope and the pace of bilateral military ties. Indeed, while Beijing and Washington have managed to expand areas of contact and maintain or repair bilateral military relations after major setbacks, they have yet to resolve their core differences. Thus, beneath pledges of cooperation and building a healthy, stable relationship lie deep rifts over a number of issues, including US arms sales to Taiwan; Chinese concerns over US strategic intentions in the Indo\u2013Pacific; and China\u2019s growing assertiveness in its territorial disputes with neighbouring countries, among others.<\/p>\n
Managing this relationship won\u2019t be easy. But the key will be to keep trying, as it\u2019s too important to be left unattended, to be swayed by the vicissitudes of the general bilateral relationship during a crucial period of transition in international politics and adjustments for both countries. However, for a more stable bilateral military relationship to develop and to be sustained, longer term strategies must emphasise engagement, exchange and a better understanding of each other\u2019s interests, priorities and policy options. The stakes couldn\u2019t be higher as China and the US enter a period of growing tensions and uncertainty.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
US\u2013China military exchanges constitute an important aspect of bilateral relations between the reigning superpower and a fast-rising one. Initiated in the wake of the establishment of diplomatic relations during the Cold War when the two …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":215,"featured_media":30346,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[52,1428,287,31],"class_list":["post-30345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-china","tag-donald-trump","tag-military-exercises","tag-united-states"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/p>\n