‘Bigger picture’: China’s PLA hosts young Japanese officers in renewed military exchange
Visit is the second time for the in-person exchanges since they resumed in July last year following the pandemic
In a rare sign of defence cooperation amid frayed bilateral ties, China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has hosted a Japanese delegation of young military officers.
The nine-day trip, which wrapped up on December 4, included visits to the cities of Beijing, Chengdu and Guangzhou, Chinese defence ministry spokesman Wu Qian said on Friday.
During their trip, the Japanese officers visited the Beijing garrison’s guard division, a naval base and the air force’s aerobatic team. They also held talks with Chinese military officers at the PLA Academy of Military Sciences, Wu said.
The visit is the second time such communications have been held in person in China since they resumed in July last year, when a Japanese delegation visited China for the first time in four years, following the suspension of regular exchanges during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In May, China sent a delegation of 20 military officers to Japan for the first time since the pandemic.
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The visits date back to 2001 when military officers from each country arranged an exchange programme that continued until it was suspended in 2012, and then resumed in 2018.
