China has proposed officer exchanges, new joint exercises and other measures to build trust between the world’s most powerful military and its largest, General Peter Pace, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Friday.

During a visit to China on Friday, Gen Pace said that Liang Guanglie, chief of the General Staff of the 2.3m-strong People’s Liberation Army, had offered a list of suggestions for confidence-building measures “which I was very pleased to hear”.