US, China agree to restart military relations

The US and China agreed to restart stalled military relations, starting with a series of high-level meetings to begin next month, the Wall Street Journal reported. China had broken off relations in January this year after the US sold up to US$6.4 billion in arms to Taiwan. The meetings will include maritime security talks in Hawaii on October 14-15, as well as broader meetings in Washington later this year. The meetings in Washington are expected to have General Ma Xiaotian, China’s deputy chief of general staff, as China’s delegation head. The announcement comes after talks in Beijing between R. Michael Schiffer, deputy assistant secretary of defense for East Asia, and Qian Lihua, head of the Chinese Defense Ministry’s foreign affairs office.