Military exchanges between China and the US remain frozen despite a seemingly cordial telephone conversation between US President Barack Obama and President Hu Jintao, and the forthcoming port call in Hong Kong of the US aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis.
'It's still a work in progress,' said one US officer.
Indeed, Beijing underscored its displeasure with the US with not-so-subtle warnings recently. Two generals signed an essay lauding the increased capability of China's nuclear forces, including long-range missiles that could strike the US. And a defence scholar asserted that Beijing's white paper on military forces, issued last month, marked the limit to which it was willing to disclose military information.
The US, under several administrations, has sought exchanges with Chinese military leaders to persuade them not to miscalculate US capabilities and intentions. This was forcefully expressed in public in 1999 by Admiral Dennis Blair, then head of the Pacific Command and now Director of National Intelligence. He told Congress the message to China was that the US did not intend to 'contain' China but 'don't mess with us'.
More recently, officials of the Bush and Obama administrations have urged Beijing to be more 'transparent' in strategy, budgets and procurement of weapons.
The present standoff began in October, when the Bush administration and Taiwan agreed on a US$6.5 billion sale of arms to Taipei. The sale, if consummated, would include 330 Patriot anti-missile missiles intended to deter Beijing from launching the 1,400 missiles it has aimed at Taiwan.
Mainland officials immediately protested about the arms sale and, as they have in the past when the US displeased them, cut off port visits, exchanges of military students and reciprocal visits by military leaders.
