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China, U.S. to resume military ties
By Senior China Analyst Willy Wo-Lap Lam
HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- China and the U.S. are set to resume military ties soon after the Friday summit between Presidents Jiang Zemin and George W. Bush in Crawford, Texas. Most defense-related contacts and security dialogues have been frozen in the wake of the EP3 "spy plane" incident in April 2001. Diplomatic sources in Beijing and Washington said a flurry of exchanges by senior military officers was due to take place in the coming few months. Admiral Thomas B. Fargo, the new Commander U.S. Pacific Command, is expected to visit Beijing later this year. And a fleet of U.S. naval vessels is due to call shortly on a Chinese port for the first time after April last year. General Xing Shizhong, head of the Chinese National Defense University, also has plans for a U.S. tour in the near future. At the same time, regular Defense Consultative Talks (DCTs) between both militaries is due to resume in December or early 2003. The first resumed DCT, to take place in Washington, will be headed on the Chinese side by Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, General Xiong Guangkai. A fluent English speaker and veteran intelligence expert, Xiong has been mentioned as a candidate for the post of defense minister. Topics on the agenda will range from implementing confidence-building measures and promoting military transparency and communication. Taiwan's Central News Agency on Wednesday quoted a spokesman of the U.S. Department of Defense as saying it was useful for the American and Chinese militaries to pursue a dialogue on strategies and policies. While the spokesman gave no details on the time-frame or contents regarding the resumption of military ties, it was an indication that the Pentagon was more favorably disposed to more contacts with China. As late as last July, no substantial results were reached when Assistant Secretary of Defense Peter Rodman held talks with counterparts in Beijing on the possibility of resuming military-to-military contacts. Meanwhile, analysts said it was unlikely that Washington would soon lift 13-year-old sanctions on the shipment of arms-related material and technology to China. While Beijing was eager to have the U.S. lift a ban on launching American satellites on Chinese rockets in time for the Crawford summit, the Reuters news agency quoted U.S. officials as saying it is not expected to happen. Despite having published since August several sets of regulations restricting the export of missiles and other military material, Beijing has resisted U.S. demands to resolve other proliferation differences. "We have seen real progress on a couple of the issues that we laid out as needing action and we have not seen progress on several others," a senior official told Reuters. "We continue to see activities (that) suggest Chinese entities are exporting missile-related technologies to countries like Pakistan or Iran or Libya," he added, without going into detail.
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