Inside the Ring

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen

By Bill Gertz

China disconnect

Expanding U.S. military exchanges with China could help reduce an apparent "disconnect" between China's military and civilian leaders, but caution is needed to guard against possible spying and disinformation efforts. That's one of the key points in a draft report for the secretary of state by the International Security Advisory Board, a panel of outside experts.

The draft report by a task force headed by Robert Joseph, former undersecretary of state for international security, was obtained by The Washington Times and is expected to be completed in a few weeks. It identifies a "separation" between Chinese political and military leaders that it says has been a cause of concern in the past. It gives as an example the April 2001 incident in which a Chinese interceptor jet flew into a U.S. P-3 surveillance aircraft, killing the Chinese pilot and nearly causing the U.S. plane to crash.

"The disconnect between China's civilian leadership and the [People's Liberation Army] may have contributed to potentially dangerous incidents," the report states, noting as an example "the forced landing of the P-3 in 2001."

"While clearly an internal matter for China, addressing this disconnect could reduce the prospects for miscalculation and misunderstanding," it states.

A U.S. defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity said another example of a lack of unity between civilian and military leaders came in November, when Chinese officials at the last minute turned away the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk from a Thanksgiving Day port call to Hong Kong planned months in advance. There also were differing official Chinese explanations for a January 2007 anti-satellite weapon test.

The report recommends that the U.S. military expand military-to-military exchanges, dialogue and cooperative efforts in part to resolve such problems.

"In doing so, U.S. planners and participants must remain cognizant that China could use such confidence-building measures to collect intelligence and spawn disinformation," the report says.

The defense official said China has used military exchanges in the past to present misinformation about Chinese military capabilities. One visiting U.S. defense team in the late 1990s was shown an older air defense missile site, rather than China's more advanced missile systems, in an apparent attempt at "strategic deception" about Chinese military capabilities, he said.

Chinese Embassy spokesman Wang Baodong had no immediate comment.