Beijing drags feet over US hotline

China and the US announced on Monday they would establish a hotline between their defence ministries, but Beijing declined to commit to a timetable for setting up a link which Washington wants to help avert future crises.

The commitment to a hotline from Cao Gangchuan, Chinese defence minister, came during a meeting with his visiting US counterpart, Robert Gates, that is intended to continue a recent warming in military ties between the two Pacific powers.

After years of prevarication China signalled this year that it would accept the US proposal for a military hotline when a senior general predicted agreement on the issue by September.

However, General Cao on Monday did not say when he thought the link might be put into place.

“We will both urge the relevant departments to press ahead with the technical consultations and preparations,” he said.

The time taken to resolve even a relatively uncontroversial issue highlights the sensitivity of links between the military establishments in Beijing and Washington.

Ties have recovered markedly since the deep freeze that followed the collision between a Chinese fighter jet and an American spy aircraft in April 2001.

However, Mr Gates on Monday appeared to make little progress on issues such as US calls for China to lift the veil of secrecy that shrouds details of its spending on the People’s Liberation Army.

The US defence secretary also failed to win any new insights into China’s surprise test of an anti-satellite weapon in January.

“With respect to the anti-satellite test, I raised our concerns about it and there was no further discussion,” Mr Gates said.

Gen Cao and Mr Gates did agree to increase exchanges between their defence establishments, military schools and young officers, and to hold joint humanitarian and disaster relief exercises.

Such programmes should help to build links between the two militaries, but establishing the planned hotline will hardly guarantee smooth communications.

Beijing and Washington set up a similar direct link for their national leaders in 1998, but it went unused in the days after the 2001 spy aircraft incident, which caused the death of a PLA pilot and prompted angry anti-US demonstrations in Chinese cities.

According to one former senior official close to the administration of President George W. Bush, senior members of Mr Bush’s then-novice national security team were in fact unaware of the hotline.

Attempts by US leaders to use other channels to contact their Chinese counterparts in the early days of the crisis were rebuffed by Beijing.