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China to halt military exchanges with US

By Wu Jiao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-01-30 20:13

Chinese military's chief of the general staff Chen Bingde will not visit US this year as scheduled as the Ministry of National Defense announced today that China has decided to suspend all planned military exchanges with the United States, military strategists said.

The scheduled military exchanges include: Gen. Chen Bingde to visit the US, while US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, had planned to come to China this year.

"All of these high-level military exchanges might come to a halt as the result of the United States' arms sales to Taiwan," a military strategist who declined to be named told China Daily.

China took a similar step in 2008 after the former Bush administration announced a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan.

Major General Luo Yuan, a senior researcher with the Academy of Military Science, told the Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV that the arms sale gives China fair and proper reason to add its defense budget.

"It justifies China's effort to raise its defense budget, purchase more weapons and advance its researches. China has not threatened the United States, so why the later one try to challenge our core strategic interests?" Luo said.