U.S. military chief visits China

BEIJING – The Pentagon’s top general arrived in Beijing today on a visit aimed at expanding military-to-military links, including joint search-and-rescue exercises and courses bringing together junior officers.

In his first visit to China as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine Gen. Peter Pace was scheduled to meet today with Defense Minister Gen. Cao Gangchuan and other top leaders of China’s 2.3 million-member armed forces.

His four-day visit also includes a seminar at the Military Science Academy, visits to military installations and meetings with regional military leaders in the northern city of Shenyang and Nanjing in the east.

In a news conference Wednesday, Pace said he did not regard China as a threat and hoped to further rebuild military ties that have languished since an in-air collision between a U.S. spy plane and a Chinese jet fighter over the South China Sea in 2001.

“When you get to know each other and know how each other thinks, you build trust and confidence,” Pace told reporters in Japan, a close U.S. ally where he began his regional tour. “I’m looking for ways to respect China as a nation that deserves respect,” Pace said.

Recent months have seen the People’s Liberation Army move tentatively to re-engage with the U.S. military, beginning with an invitation last year to observe war games from the former commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, Adm. William J. Fallon.

That was followed by a joint search-and-rescue exercise and the restoration of consultation mechanisms on maritime security, humanitarian disaster relief and military environmental protection.