U.S.-China Military Contacts: Issues for Congress. CRS Report for Congress
Abstract
This CRS Report discusses policy issues regarding military-to-military contacts with the People's Republic of China (PRC), and provides a chronology of contacts from 1993 to 2005. The United States suspended military contacts with China and imposed sanctions on arms sales in response to the Tiananmen Crackdown in 1989. In 1993, the Clinton Administration began to re-engage the PRC leadership up to the highest level and including China's military, the People's Liberation Army (PLA). Renewed military exchanges with the PLA have not regained the closeness reached in the 1980s, when the United States and China cooperated strategically against the Soviet Union and the United States sold arms to China. Improvements and deterioration in overall bilateral relations have affected military contacts, which were close in 1997, 1998 and 2000, but marred by the 1995-1996 Taiwan Strait crisis, mistaken NATO bombing of a PRC embassy in 1999, and the EP-3 aircraft collision incident in 2001. Since 2001, the Bush Administration has continued the policy of engagement with China, while the Pentagon has skeptically reviewed and cautiously resumed a program of military-to-military (mil-to-mil) exchanges. Issues for Congress include whether the Administration has complied with legislation overseeing dealings with the PLA and has determined a program of contacts with the PLA that advances a prioritized list of U.S. security interests. Skeptics and proponents of military exchanges with the PRC have debated whether the contacts have had significant value for achieving U.S. objectives, and whether the contacts have contributed to the PLA's warfighting capabilities and might harm U.S. security interests. U.S. security interests in mil-to-mil contacts with China might include communication, conflict prevention, and crisis management; information gathering; tension reduction over Taiwan; weapons nonproliferation; counterterrorism; and accounting for American POW/MIAs.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 10, 2005
- Accession Number
- ADA436199
Entities
People
- Shirley Kan
Organizations
- Library of Congress