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Sino-US military ties set to resume

Ray Cheung

High-level military exchanges between China and the United States look set to resume after a six-month suspension sparked by the spy plane incident in April, Pentagon sources say.

A senior US Defence Department official was in Beijing negotiating the resumption, the sources said.

'We are ready to engage China and now we're waiting to see what Beijing will agree to,' a senior Pentagon official said. A formal announcement is expected soon, after the official returns to Washington this week.

According to another US military source, Washington would propose restarting strategic defence consultations and meetings at the secretary and assistant-secretary level.

A resumption would signal a further significant improvement in Sino-US relations. All military exchanges were suspended by the Pentagon after the Hainan incident in April in which a US spy plane and a Chinese fighter collided, forcing the American plane to land on the southern island. The American crew was held for 11 days. The Chinese pilot died.

The Pentagon ordered all US military contacts with China, including social gatherings, to be reviewed on a case-by-case basis.

According to the Pentagon official, the US wants to get exchanges back to the pre-2000 levels.

However, the resumption of exchanges may not include middle to low-level encounters such as troop manoeuvres and medical operations as in the past. The Pentagon believed these exchanges improved the operational capability of the Chinese military, the military source said.

The planned resumption had been helped by China's support of the US-led war on terrorism after the terrorist attacks on September 11, the source said.

The attacks had helped shift thinking among many at the Pentagon, who previously did not want any contact with the Chinese military, particularly Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, one of China's harshest critics. 'September 11 changed everything. People now see the value of having a strategic dialogue with China,' the source said.

In late September, Chinese security experts met US officials to share intelligence on the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

Last Friday, Vice-Foreign Minister Wang Guangya met US Undersecretary of State John Bolton to discuss arms control. And at the weekend, the US 7th Fleet battle group made a port call in Hong Kong.

Today, US ambassador-at-large Francis Taylor will meet Vice-Foreign Ministers Li Zhaoxing and Wang Yi, and PLA Deputy Chief of Staff Xiong Guangkai for two days of talks on the war against terrorism.

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