U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited China’s nuclear warfare headquarters on Wednesday, an event that strongly suggests that the currently frosty relationship between the military establishments of the two nations is thawing. The visit did not produce a major diplomatic breakthrough or announcement, but it is a positive step in rebuilding a once useful relationship that has proved beneficial to both countries.
For years, the Chinese and U.S. militaries quietly worked together on issues of mutual interest. Cooperation proved useful. It produced, for example, mutual assurances that neither nation would pre-emptively use long-range nuclear missiles against the other. That policy was reaffirmed during Gates’ visit.
U.S.-Chinese military cooperation also serves an essential role in dealing with North Korea. Whenever the mercurial leaders of that country threaten to create global mayhem by using nuclear weapons or attacking South Korea, China, the rogue’s nation’s largest supplier of aid, has proved to be a calming influence. Its military leaders and diplomats, usually working behind the scenes, have managed to keep a volatile situation from becoming worse. That’s a thankless role that benefits the entire globe.
The once beneficial relationship ended last year when the United States announced an almost $6 billion arms deal with Taiwan. China, which refuses to recognize the island nation’s independence and calls it a breakaway province of the mainland, said the sale was a provocation. It promptly suspended all military talks with the United States and canceled a previously scheduled visit by Gates to the nuclear command center. Wednesday’s visit indicates that China now feels it has made its point and that it wants to move forward. Gates should respond positively to the overture.
While the two superpowers will never be military allies in the conventional sense, open lines of communication are vital if each is to fully play a useful role in world affairs. Resumption of talks will allow the nations to further refine and restate commitments not to use nuclear weaponry pre-emptively. It should allow, as well, China and the United States to broaden military talks to include hot issues like cyberwarfare and the deployment of military hardware in outer space. Talk about such topics is far preferable to secrecy. The latter almost always breeds distrust.
The real benefit of improved relations between the two countries is not that Gates can visit a Chinese nuclear facility or that a top Chinese nuclear commander has been invited to tour U.S. Strategic Command headquarters in Nebraska. It is that countries that regularly talk to each other about military topics and issues are far more likely to respect one another and to work diligently to avoid conflict rather than stumble into war because of a misunderstanding.