A senior Defense Department official marked the anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s military arm with a speech at the Chinese embassy in Washington Tuesday, declaring the U.S.-China military relationship to be “stronger than it has been in years.”
Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Alvaro Smith spoke at an army day ceremony at the embassy to mark the 99th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Liberation Army.
“We seek a decent peace, fair trade and respectful relations with China,” said Mr. Smith, who is in charge of China, Taiwan and Mongolia policy. His remarks were posted online by the Pentagon.
The conciliatory comments were made despite mounting tensions with China and what many analysts say is Beijing’s low-level warfare against the U.S.
China’s threatening actions have included cyberattacks on critical U.S. infrastructure and large-scale espionage and influence operations. President Trump has also accused Beijing of interfering in U.S. elections.
The State Department contends China is violating international law in the South China Sea by ignoring an international tribunal ruling dismissing Beijing’s expansive maritime claims as illegal.
China’s military has also ramped up operations near Taiwan and has harshly criticized Japan for Tokyo’s talk of building nuclear weapons and showing support for regional nations such as Taiwan and the Philippines.
Beijing’s military also is engaged in a secretive and large-scale nuclear missile buildup while refusing to join arms control talks as required under a nuclear nonproliferation treaty.
Chinese exports of deadly fentanyl precursors to Mexican drug cartels also are continuing, despite Beijing’s promises to halt the trade.
Mr. Smith said the Pentagon, under Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, is seeking to repair “a once-broken military-to-military channel” and is making progress.
The new approach to U.S.-China military ties is based on “candid, respectful and clear conversations with genuine interest in de-escalation,” he said.
The new policy is based on what Mr. Smith called a “realism” he did not fully explain, other than to state that the Trump administration’s national defense strategy calls for a favorable balance of power in the region.
“And as we pursue and defend our interests, I would reiterate that we do not seek conflict with China,” he said, noting that open lines of military-to-military talks are aimed at reducing the danger of miscalculation and building “mutual understanding.”
The Pentagon for decades has sought to build better relations with the Chinese military — an effort critics say has failed.
In incidents such as the downing of a U.S. surveillance aircraft near China in 2001 and the Chinese intelligence-gathering balloon that transited the U.S. in 2023, efforts to reach out to Chinese military leaders were unsuccessful.
The new conciliatory China policy is the work of Elbridge Colby, undersecretary of defense for policy, who criticized the first Trump administration’s hard-line stance toward China in a recent New York Times podcast.
Mr. Colby said he is a “realist” but not an isolationist or “uber-hawk” who personally engages with Chinese defense and military officials.
The undersecretary put in place what he calls a “denial strategy” that does not seek regime change in Beijing.
“I feel very confident that I’m not being conniving or dissembling at all when I say that our posture is designed for strategic stability and the status quo and a balance of power. It’s not the kind of capabilities that you can use reasonably to conduct aggression against military power,” he said.
“Speaking respectfully” with China is a shift from the first Trump administration that was “talking about regime change in China,” Mr. Colby said.
In the first administration, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stopped short of calling for overthrowing the communist regime. Instead, Mr. Pompeo in a 2020 speech said the U.S. should work with Chinese people to change CCP behavior.
Critics have said the realist policy and limited denial defense toward China lean toward defeatism.
The new approach is a marked departure from the “peace through strength” policies toward the Soviet Union in the 1980s under President Reagan.
Reagan never called for respecting the Soviet communist system. He labeled it an “evil empire.” Reagan once remarked to an aide that his approach to the Cold War was simple: “We win; they lose.”
Those policies led to the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991.
Retired Navy Capt. Jim Fanell and China expert Bradley A. Thayer criticized U.S. efforts to seek warm military ties with China in their recent book, “Embracing Communist China: America’s Greatest Strategic Failure.”
Senior Navy officers allowed Chinese visitors to gain valuable intelligence on the vulnerabilities of U.S. warships during exchanges over the years, leading Congress to limit the exchanges.
Capt. Fanell and Mr. Thayer wrote that too many admirals were weak and failed to advocate building naval strength under several administrations’ pro-China policies. The result was that many flag officers adopted “a profoundly dangerous attitude toward unconstrained and unaccountable engagement with their PLA navy counterparts,” they stated.
Correction: An earlier version of this newsletter incorrectly reported the location of Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Alvaro Smith’s speech marking the anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party’s military arm. The speech was at the Chinese Embassy in Washington.
