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US Defense Chief to Visit China
US Defence Secretary William Cohen said on Monday he will visit China this summer to help revive military ties frozen after the bombing of China's embassy in Belgrade during last year's NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia.
"I'll be going again this summer to reestablish our military-to-military contacts," Cohen said in a speech on the importance of US global ties.
The secretary did not announce dates for his visit, but said he would discuss possible cooperation in humanitarian operations and peacekeeping between the two militaries, "basically trying to reduce tensions which could lead to confrontation between our two countries."
The secretary spoke at a conference on globalization sponsored by the Economic Strategy Institute, a private US policy research group.
Cohen in January accepted an invitation to visit China at a mutually convenient time after the two countries agreed to the gradual resumption of military-to-military ties interrupted by the embassy bombing by US warplanes last May.
Cohen last visited China in 1998. A visit he had planned last year was cancelled after the bombing, amid a sharp general deterioration in Sino-US relations.
A senior Chinese military delegation, led by Lt. Gen. Xiong Guangxi, visited Washington in January and held extensive talks with Cohen and other senior US officials.
Xiong is vice chairman of the People's Liberation Army and is prominent in the Communist Party's powerful foreign policy group, which sets Taiwan policy.
While January's talks set a modest agenda for exchange visits by Chinese and US civilian and military officials in the current year, overall relations between the two countries have remained tense in many areas such as policy toward Taiwan, arms proliferation and alleged Chinese spying on the United States.
In his remarks on Monday, Cohen argued in favour of US permanent normalised trade relations with China, a major current battleground between President Bill Clinton and opponents of his trade policy in Congress, many of whom are his fellow Democrats.
Cohen said lawmakers should approve landmark legislation which would end the current requirement for annual reviews of Beijing's trading status with Washington.
"It is clear to me at least that this notion of trying to contain China would be an act of folly. It's futile," he said, stressing the policy of the White House and Defence Department of equal but firm engagement with Beijing on a wide range of issues.
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