U.S., China hold 'backdoor' military talk

BEIJING, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Chinese and U.S. defense experts discussed military ties between the two countries despite a freeze on military exchanges since January, officials said.

A senior Chinese general met with the head of a leading U.S. think tank Thursday to discuss the building of strong military ties, China's Xinhua news agency reported.

"A sound and stable China-U.S. military relationship is good for bilateral strategic trust and regional peace and stability," Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army Ma Xiaotian told John Hamre, president of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Hamre, who served as the U.S. deputy secretary of defense during the Clinton administration, is in China at the invitation of the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.

Meetings between officials of the two countries are a rare occurrence since China cut off some military exchange programs with the United States after the Pentagon decided to sell a nearly $6.4 billion arms package to Taiwan in January.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said U.S. deputy national security adviser Thomas Donilon and U.S. National Economic Council Chairman Larry Summers will visit China next week.

"Those U.S. officials' talks with Chinese military leaders reflect the fact the two countries want to keep channels open for defense talks, even though their official military exchanges have stalled," Yang Yi, a strategic expert at China's National Defense University, told Xinhua.