South China Sea, cyber security expected to top agenda
Top Chinese military official Fan Changlong is expected to meet U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter in Washington on Thursday as part of the two nations' continuing military dialogue to defuse potential tensions and avoid miscalculations.
Analysts predicted that ongoing controversies involving the two countries, including the South China Sea issue and cyberspace security, will be crucial talking points at the meeting.
Fan, vice-chairman of the Communist Party of China's Central Military Commission (CMC), arrived in the U.S. on Monday for a five-day visit before traveling to Cuba.
He started his tour in San Diego with a stop at the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier. He then visited two military bases in California on Tuesday. Fan was due to visit the U.S. Army base at Fort Hood in Texas on Wednesday, and before heading to Washington, DC, Fan is scheduled to visit a Boeing factory in Seattle.
Fan will meet with officials from the White House and the State Department, according to China Central Television (CCTV). It remains to be seen whether Fan will meet U.S. President Barack Obama.
Fan's predecessors held talks with former president George W. Bush in 2006 and with Obama in 2009.
Despite growing tensions between China and the U.S. around security issues in the past few years, military exchanges have been steady. Three senior CMC officials have visited the US since 2013, including defense minister Chang Wanquan.
Fan's visit is believed to be the first by a CMC vice-chairman in six years, and analysts said that this proves the continuous efforts to carry on the dialogue mechanism and more confidence-building measures to boost military cooperation, such as visits to important military infrastructure.
Previous media reports showed that visiting U.S. military officers have been granted access to several People's Liberation Army (PLA) navy and air force bases as well as the headquarters of the Second Artillery Force, which is under direct control of the CMC.
PLA Navy Commander Admiral Wu Shengli visited the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier and the USS Thomas Jefferson nuclear-powered submarine in 2013 during a visit to the U.S., while Chuck Hagel, former U.S. secretary of defense, also boarded the Chinese aircraft carrier Liaoning last year on a visit to China.
By visiting Boeing, a typical civil-military integrated company, military leaders may exchange experiences on how to develop their defense industry based on civil industry, a Beijing-based military expert who requested anonymity, told the Global Times.
"The U.S. is good at civil-military integration. Many civil industries in the U.S. have helped develop advanced weapons based on high technology. Meanwhile, China has been working to promote civil-military integration," said the expert.
Amid recent tensions between Washington and Beijing regarding the South China Sea, the disputed waters will remain a hot topic during the meeting between Fan and Carter, but neither will relax their positions regarding island construction in the South China Sea, according to Shi Yinhong, a professor of US studies at the Renmin University of China.
Carter and other top U.S. officials have recently castigated China over its push to build artificial islands in the South China Sea. At this year's Shangri-la Dialogue in Singapore that ended on June 1, Carter also called for an immediate end to land reclamation by countries in the region, and accused China of being out of step with international rules, AFP reported.
Obama earlier this month also warned Beijing over its tactics, saying territorial disputes could not be solved by "throwing elbows."
"Meanwhile, both countries have shown intent to prevent further deterioration of the South China Sea issue, such as how to prevent ship collisions," Shi noted, adding that the US will not take more aggressive measures other than dispatching surveillance aircraft or ships to the region due to previous talks on the issue.
China and the U.S. have signed memorandums of understanding of notice on major military operations as well as codes on unplanned encounters at sea last year, which is "pragmatic cooperation," Lu Yin, an associate research fellow on military strategy at the University of National Defense, told the Global Times.
"This can guarantee a channel for communication during conflicts or during crises," Lu said.
"The South China Sea issues may seem an obstacle to the bilateral military relationship, but the two countries are working to realize benign interaction," Lu said. "There should be more cooperation than conflicts."
Cyberspace security will also be brought up in the meeting, as it is one of the top concerns of the U.S., according to Han Hua, an associate professor and an arms control expert at Peking University.
"But more importantly, top military leaders of the two countries will work to reassure each other of their military strategies, as the US is concerned about the Chinese military's modernization efforts and Beijing keeps an eye on U.S. military deployment in the Asia-Pacific region," Han told the Global Times.
