Improve Sino-US military ties step by step

Tours of the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan and the littoral combat ship USS Coronado by Chinese Chief of General Staff, General Fang Fenghui during his visit to the United States are signs of both sides' will to improve military relations.

Fang's landing on the US aircraft carrier is a reciprocal gesture after US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was invited to tour the Liaoning, China's first, and so far only carrier. With China's enhanced efforts to render its military more transparent, Beijing and Washington have raised their military exchanges and cooperation to a new level.

Opening the USS Coronado to Chinese military top brass shows the US military's willingness to engage with the Chinese military cooperatively.

In the wake of the US "rebalancing" policy, the Pentagon is aware that the Chinese defense community is wary of the unfolding US notion of air-sea combat, in which its littoral combat ships will assume a critical role in dealing with anti-access and the area denial weapons. As the US' 4th littoral combat ship, the USS Coronado represents cutting-edge naval technology that is both agile and lethal with limited size and tonnage.

With China's rapid rise being accompanied by the modernization of its military, the US has become naturally apprehensive about China's growing capabilities and wary of its intentions. In the same vein, China's concern over the US' response is also natural. Such mutual suspicion, if uncontrolled, could result in an enhanced sense of insecurity if not properly allayed.

To prevent misjudgments, China and the US have been negotiating a Mechanism on Mutual Notification of Major Military Moves. This process, reportedly proposed at the summit between US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Sunnylands, California, in June last year, was advanced during General Fang's trip. This together with the proposed Code of Conduct on the Use of Air Space and Maritime Military Security on the High Sea would mean the two militaries have good channels of communication to prevent inadvertent clashes.

Such crisis avoidance mechanisms between China and the US are of particular importance, given the mid-air collision between Chinese and US air force planes in 2001 and the numerous standoffs at sea over the past decade. As political and military trust between China and the US is still far from sufficient, it is unrealistic for each of them not to employ a hedging approach. Subsequently, their respective preparation for the worst-case scenario will go on.