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China smile for Gates conceals tensions
When Robert Gates steps off his aircraft in Beijing on Sunday, his hosts will be all smiles – and iron teeth.
General Ma Xiaotian, deputy head of the People’s Liberation Army general staff, will be dispatched to meet the US defence secretary, with some of the PLA’s most polished diplomats on hand to ensure smooth communication.
“We have been preparing for weeks because we hope to make the US delegation feel really welcome and have friendly exchanges with them,” says an officer at the foreign affairs office of the ministry of defence.
He is one of Beijing’s troupe of young, suave military officials with fluent English, impeccable manners and a sharp sense of humour.
In spite of the warm welcome the Sino-US military relationship has been characterised by tension and only patchy dialogue since Mr Gates’s last to China visit three years ago. The reality is that fundamental tensions lie near the surface. Both sides will be eager, however, to make sure the visit starting on Sunday appears filled with congeniality.
Beijing has suspended military-to-military ties with the US twice over the past two years, following decisions by Washington to sell arms to Taiwan, the self-ruled island over which China claims sovereignty. Yang Yi, a retired rear admiral and former head of China’s National Defence University, says the country should “punish” the US for such sales. “We must make them hurt,” he says.
Major General Luo Yuan, at the PLA’s Academy of Military Sciences, proposes countering US arms sales to Taiwan with economic measures, including selling down China’s US bond holdings.
Another frequent point of contention has been the US navy’s surveillance of the Chinese coast and Washington’s call, last summer, for a multilateral solution to territorial disputes in the South China Sea. The Pentagon insists that its vessels and aircraft are operating in international waters and airspace, which begin six nautical miles off the coast.
China, however, objects to their presence in its exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles off the coast. The Pentagon also believes that Beijing’s quest for more submarines, fighter jets, missiles and other weaponry fit for power projection is contrary to reassurances that its intentions are peaceful.
Within China those tensions are reflected by verbal salvoes fired by senior hawks within the military, who see the US as a fading imperialist power intent on encircling China.
Colonel Liu Mingfu, a professor at the National Defence University, published a book calling on China to prepare “for a fight with the US for global dominance in the 21st century”.
In November, Colonel Qiao Liang, a professor at an air force academy, blasted the US as an imperialist power that “has fought four wars over the past 20 years, each of which was aimed at protecting US hegemony.”
Prior to that Colonel Dai Xu, an air force strategist, accused the US of trying to contain China through encirclement by building closer ties to its neighbours, from South Korea to India.
Defence experts in China believe the hostility reflected in public disputes, and the language of the generals, gives a truer picture of the view within the PLA, which regards the US as the enemy. It is no coincidence, they say, that most of Beijing’s “angry generals” are the cream of those who teach the next generation of military officers. But those messages are not ones that Mr Gates is likely to hear during his visit – or that even resident diplomats ever encounter in person.
“That is why we normally only get to talk to a select group of Chinese defence officials,” says a European defence attaché. “They are well trained to say only what foreigners want to hear.”
This careful management of relations with foreign forces distinguishes China’s military diplomacy from that of other countries, say some experts.
“Some of what Western observers might consider the major components of foreign military relations – military dialogue, co-operative activities and exchanges – rank relatively low on the PLA’s list of diplomatic priorities,” says Kenneth Allen, an expert on Chinese military diplomacy at Defense Group. “PLA military diplomacy is not regarded as a freestanding set of activities with its own intrinsic value but rather as a vehicle for furthering the party-state’s strategic national objectives.”
For Mr Gates’s visit, even hawks such as Maj Gen Luo and Rear Admiral Yang are playing along. In interviews with China’s two big English-language papers, they called for mutual trust and transparency – and smiled for the cameras.
That message, however, runs counter to Beijing’s foreign policy agenda.
In a recent paper, Mr Allen stresses that China tries to use military diplomacy as a vehicle for implementing its general policy of reassurance, reflected in the recurring use of the terms “peace” and “co-operation”.
Welcome to Beijing Mr Gates.
FT.com / Asia-Pacific - Beijing smile for Gates conceals tensions
When Robert Gates steps off his aircraft in Beijing on Sunday, his hosts will be all smiles – and iron teeth.
General Ma Xiaotian, deputy head of the People’s Liberation Army general staff, will be dispatched to meet the US defence secretary, with some of the PLA’s most polished diplomats on hand to ensure smooth communication.
“We have been preparing for weeks because we hope to make the US delegation feel really welcome and have friendly exchanges with them,” says an officer at the foreign affairs office of the ministry of defence.
He is one of Beijing’s troupe of young, suave military officials with fluent English, impeccable manners and a sharp sense of humour.
In spite of the warm welcome the Sino-US military relationship has been characterised by tension and only patchy dialogue since Mr Gates’s last to China visit three years ago. The reality is that fundamental tensions lie near the surface. Both sides will be eager, however, to make sure the visit starting on Sunday appears filled with congeniality.
Beijing has suspended military-to-military ties with the US twice over the past two years, following decisions by Washington to sell arms to Taiwan, the self-ruled island over which China claims sovereignty. Yang Yi, a retired rear admiral and former head of China’s National Defence University, says the country should “punish” the US for such sales. “We must make them hurt,” he says.
Major General Luo Yuan, at the PLA’s Academy of Military Sciences, proposes countering US arms sales to Taiwan with economic measures, including selling down China’s US bond holdings.
Another frequent point of contention has been the US navy’s surveillance of the Chinese coast and Washington’s call, last summer, for a multilateral solution to territorial disputes in the South China Sea. The Pentagon insists that its vessels and aircraft are operating in international waters and airspace, which begin six nautical miles off the coast.
China, however, objects to their presence in its exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles off the coast. The Pentagon also believes that Beijing’s quest for more submarines, fighter jets, missiles and other weaponry fit for power projection is contrary to reassurances that its intentions are peaceful.
Within China those tensions are reflected by verbal salvoes fired by senior hawks within the military, who see the US as a fading imperialist power intent on encircling China.
Colonel Liu Mingfu, a professor at the National Defence University, published a book calling on China to prepare “for a fight with the US for global dominance in the 21st century”.
In November, Colonel Qiao Liang, a professor at an air force academy, blasted the US as an imperialist power that “has fought four wars over the past 20 years, each of which was aimed at protecting US hegemony.”
Prior to that Colonel Dai Xu, an air force strategist, accused the US of trying to contain China through encirclement by building closer ties to its neighbours, from South Korea to India.
Defence experts in China believe the hostility reflected in public disputes, and the language of the generals, gives a truer picture of the view within the PLA, which regards the US as the enemy. It is no coincidence, they say, that most of Beijing’s “angry generals” are the cream of those who teach the next generation of military officers. But those messages are not ones that Mr Gates is likely to hear during his visit – or that even resident diplomats ever encounter in person.
“That is why we normally only get to talk to a select group of Chinese defence officials,” says a European defence attaché. “They are well trained to say only what foreigners want to hear.”
This careful management of relations with foreign forces distinguishes China’s military diplomacy from that of other countries, say some experts.
“Some of what Western observers might consider the major components of foreign military relations – military dialogue, co-operative activities and exchanges – rank relatively low on the PLA’s list of diplomatic priorities,” says Kenneth Allen, an expert on Chinese military diplomacy at Defense Group. “PLA military diplomacy is not regarded as a freestanding set of activities with its own intrinsic value but rather as a vehicle for furthering the party-state’s strategic national objectives.”
For Mr Gates’s visit, even hawks such as Maj Gen Luo and Rear Admiral Yang are playing along. In interviews with China’s two big English-language papers, they called for mutual trust and transparency – and smiled for the cameras.
That message, however, runs counter to Beijing’s foreign policy agenda.
In a recent paper, Mr Allen stresses that China tries to use military diplomacy as a vehicle for implementing its general policy of reassurance, reflected in the recurring use of the terms “peace” and “co-operation”.
Welcome to Beijing Mr Gates.
FT.com / Asia-Pacific - Beijing smile for Gates conceals tensions
