A flurry of diplomacy by Chinese army (People's Liberation Army)
officials is conducive to reducing miscalculations amid recent territorial
disputes and neighbours' concerns about China's military strength, analysts
said.
Two senior army officials are currently
visiting Asian countries. Defence Minister Liang Guanglie started a three-day
visit to India on Sunday.
India has territorial disputes
with China along their shared border but the first visit by a defence minister
in eight years will help ease tensions, analysts said.
Liang is scheduled to meet his
counterpart A.K. Antony and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today in New
Delhi.
Also on Sunday, an army
delegation, led by the Deputy Chief of General Staff Ma Xiaotian, left Beijing
to visit Vietnam, Myanmar, Malaysia and Singapore. Vietnam and Malaysia have
claims regarding the South China Sea.
Chinese military and Foreign
Ministry have conducted a number of intensive exchanges this year, with the
emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region. Army senior officials have visited about
20 countries.
Cai Yingting, deputy chief of the
General Staff of the People's Liberation Army just concluded a visit to the
United States.
While there, Cai reiterated
Beijing's stance over the Diaoyu Islands (known in Japan as Senkaku Islands)
and opposed any application of the US-Japan security treaty regarding the
islands that belong to China.
China is increasingly using
military diplomacy to supplement other exchanges, said Meng Xiangqing, deputy
director of the Strategic Research Institute at the National Defence University
of the army.
The central feature of Beijing's
diplomacy is to create a secure region, but "it will not yield when
sovereignty and territory are concerned", he said.
Military exchanges, the most
sensitive part of bilateral ties, will help reduce suspicion and enhance mutual
trust, said Fu Xiaoqiang, an expert on South Asian studies at the China
Institutes of Contemporary International Relations.
"We have the ability to
defend our waters, and we have not used military force. If we were to do so, it
would be as a last resort. We are conducting talks, using diplomatic means and
some civilian, law enforcement means, to resolve the conflict. This way is the
best," Ma Xiaotian told Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV earlier in Beijing.
Taylor Fravel, an associate
professor of political science and a member of the Security Studies Programme
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was quoted in an article in the
Diplomat magazine as saying that Beijing's diplomatic initiatives should be
recognised.
"Although army-affiliated
media commentators, such as Major General Luo Yuan, have called for China to
adopt a more forceful response, uniformed officers such as Ma Xiaotian and
Liang Guanglie have not. ... Of course, China will continue to assert its
claims. But the army's support for a diplomatic approach and limiting the
potential for escalation should be noted," Fravel told the magazine in
June.
Liang's trip to India is to
repair military ties that were strained in 2010 and to play down India's fears
about Chinese activity in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh that India sees as within
its sphere of influence, AFP said.
Wan Wei, a researcher at the
Academy of Military Science of the army said the purpose of Liang's visit to
India is "crystal clear".
"It is a demonstration of
goodwill since military ties between the two countries have witnessed twists
and turns."
Liang's 23-member delegation
includes Yang Jinshan, commander of the Tibet autonomous region's military
district bordering India. Fifteen rounds of high-level talks have been held in
a bid to resolve the dispute about where the Himalayan border lies.
Both sides will discuss more
confidence building measures and ways to strengthen military ties, the Press
Trust of India quoted a senior official of the Defence Ministry as saying on
Sunday.
Indian and Chinese troops took
part in counter-terrorism drills in China in 2007 and in India a year later.
The warming ties also reflect
China's concerns about a military escalation in the South China Sea, and the
perception that India is being drawn into the US "pivot" to Asia,
which Beijing sees as containment, Jayadeva Ranade, a retired Indian senior
civil servant and China analyst told Reuters.
Xinhua and Wu Jiao contributed to
this story.
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