Gates Meets Liang: Reviving Military-to-Military Relations?

Dean Cheng / October 13, 2010

With their meeting in Hanoi, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Chinese Defense Minister Liang Guanglie are expected to revive military-to-military relations between the two major powers, on hold since the sale of U.S. arms to Taiwan at the beginning of this year.

Yet, recent reports indicate that there is little actual warmth, much less trust, between the two sides’ defense establishments. Indeed, it is important to recognize that, despite the announcement that Secretary Gates will be visiting China early next year, the return of military-to-military contacts is the product of instructions from both sides’ political leadership, rather than the initiative of the two sides’ military leadership. The impending Hu-Obama summit is highly visible, and neither wants bad military-to-military contacts to sour that meeting.

This means, however, that there are only limited prospects for a genuine deepening of military relations after the leadership summit. The Chinese military establishment appears particularly uninterested, and neither side seems to expect much from the contacts. The Chinese see the talk as a U.S. request, and is certain to have its own demands in return. As they have already indicated publicly, above all, this means ending U.S. arms sales to Taiwan. It is also likely to mean pressure on the U.S. to lift legal requirements that restrict the sort of information that can be shared with the Chinese in the course of these contacts. (more…)