Sailors from Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) run after unhooking a U.S. Navy UH60 Seahawk as it prepares to take off from the PLA ship Peace Ark during the multi-national military exercise RIMPAC in Honolulu, Hawaii, July 23, 2014. REUTERS/Hugh Gentry
William Johnson, Reuters: How the U.S. is training China’s military – while inching toward conflict
Despite tensions between the United States and China over the South China Sea, the two nations’ militaries train together at a very high level. Current “mil-mil” engagements are robust, with China participating in the world’s largest international maritime exercise, RIMPAC 2014, which is hosted biannually by the U.S. Pacific Command. The drills allowed China to learn a great deal about U.S. tactics, techniques and procedures (in military shorthand, “TTPs”).
But even as the United States provided China with its highest-level access to military drills, the U.S. military leadership consistently ratcheted up the level of confrontation in the South China Sea. Most recently, a top U.S. Navy admiral participated in a surveillance flight in the region. The United States is at once inching closer to armed confrontation, while at the same time training Chinese forces in the American way of war.
WNU Editor: On the one hand we are training with them .... on the other hand we are trying to deter them .... U.S. Navy Prepares To Deploy More Ships And Conduct More Exercises In Asia To Deter China. It makes you wonder if Pentagon and U.S. foreign policy has become schizophrenic.
