When is a good time to talk to China’s generals? How about … right now!

By Zachary Hosford
Best Defense East Asian politico-military affairs deputy bureau chief

Admiral Michael Mullen, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made an appearance at the Center for American Progress on Wednesday afternoon to appeal for the resumption of military-to-military relations between the United States and the People’s Republic of China.

China most recently suspended military talks between the two countries in January of this year after the Obama administration proposed a $6 billion arms sale to Taiwan, primarily consisting of missile defense assets, helicopters, minesweepers, and communications equipment. Though the deal did not include any of the über-contentious F-16s or submarines, China vociferously protested nonetheless. Beijing has taken a similar stance in the past (it suspended mil-mil relations following a 2008 Taiwan arms sale as well), as evidenced by an April 2009 cable made public this week by WikiLeaks in which Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei calls potential arms sales to Taiwan a "very serious issue" that could "derail" the bilateral relationship.

But for now, the talks are back on. In September, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Michael Schiffer announced that the mil-mil relations were "back on track." The following month, things took a step in the right direction when Defense Secretary Robert Gates met with Minister of National Defense Liang Guanglie in Hanoi, and separately, uniformed officers from U.S. Pacific Command (PACOM) met with a Chinese military delegation in Hawaii as part of the U.S.-China Military Maritime Consultative Agreement (MMCA). Next week, they will report the results of that meeting to the Defense Consultative Talks in Washington, led by the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, one Michèle Flournoy, who will be hosting her counterpart, General Ma Xiaotian. If all goes to plan, next year Admiral Mullen will host his counterpart, General Chen Bingde at the Pentagon and Secretary Gates will travel to China, after being rebuffed earlier this year.

However, these meetings could easily fall through if China wishes to again use the holding of mil-mil talks as political leverage. According to the annual DOD report on China’s military, China can expect to reap several benefits from such discussions, including reducing the potential for misunderstanding and miscalculation, gaining insights on the United States, enhancing its own military capabilities, and boosting its international prestige. And while these may be true, China seems to see the biggest benefit from agreeing to mil-mil discussions to be their ability to cancel those talks to express diplomatic pique. Beijing knows that we value these discussions and uses them as leverage whenever they disapprove of American policies or actions, such as announcing military sales to Taiwan.

So why are the discussions resuming? Many speculate that the talks are only recommencing because China wishes to improve relations ahead of President Hu Jintao’s visit to the White House in January. This might also explain why the uncharacteristically assertive public statements from Chinese military officers over the past year have abated in recent months.

Even if this is accurate, Admiral Mullen is right: We should be seeking mil-mil talks with the Chinese. After all, it’s in our interest. Admiral Mullen admitted that it’s difficult to "connect the dots" between the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and the leadership in Beijing and regular talks could help shed some light on this. Furthermore, renewed contact could give the U.S. military a chance to reduce potential maritime incidents in the South China Sea and elsewhere as well as work toward a better understanding on how to approach an increasingly assertive North Korea. And though the window of opportunity might be short-lived, the United States should capitalize on any renewed communication to work on several issues of mutual importance.

Admiral Mullen noted that naval collaboration is often a good place to start mil-mil relations and offered the recent sending of a U.S. ship to Vietnam as an example. So in that vein, the United States should work more closely with China in counterpiracy efforts off the coast of Somalia. While China has warships operating in the area, their interaction with Combined Task Force (CTF) 151 has been limited, and it would be in the interest of both navies-as well as the others involved in the Task Force-to integrate the PRC into CTF-151.

But we shouldn’t stop there. The United States should invite the PLA Navy to observe — if not join to a limited degree — naval exercises off the Korean peninsula. The U.S. Navy just completed a highly publicized maritime exercise with South Korea and will commence exercises with the Japanese later this week. While not approaching the level of involvement among the United States and its two East Asian allies, some Chinese participation would simultaneously build stronger relations between our navies, send a strong message to North Korea, reinforce the American message that our goal is not to antagonize China, and help support the U.S. goal of regional stability.

But there are other ways to engage the Chinese, if and when the official military channels are closed. There are currently multiple Track 1.5 and Track 2 dialogues between the U.S. and China, some of which include uniformed officers from both sides. While these are extremely helpful, it would be in our interest to request that more participants from the PLA are included in the talks. While the Chinese might not necessarily grant those requests, it doesn’t hurt to try. We would benefit from hearing from different Chinese voices and the more contact between the two militaries, the better.