US admiral warns no China hotline in case of crisis
The top US commander in the Pacific expressed concern today that he has no direct line to his counterpart in China in the case of a crisis in the region.
Amid tensions between China and Japan in the East China Sea, Admiral Samuel Locklear said he wanted a hotline to officers from the People's Liberation Army to defuse potential conflict.
"I don't have the ability to pick up a phone and talk directly to a PLA navy admiral or general at the time of a crisis. And we need to work on that," Locklear told a news conference.
The issue has been discussed between the two governments, he said, "but things take time."
The head of US Pacific Command said Pentagon chief Chuck Hagel and the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey, occasionally consult their counterparts by phone.
"Would that work in the time of a crisis? We hope it would work," the Locklear said.
The United States and China agreed to set up a direct telephone link between the two countries' defence ministries in 2008 -- but it has yet to be tested in an emergency.
Analysts say top officers do not have a channel to confer with their counterparts in an urgent situation, unlike in the days of the famed "red phone" with Moscow during the Cold War.
In December, a US guided missile warship, the Cowpens, had to make a sharp turn to avoid colliding with a Chinese naval ship that cut in front of it, according to the Pentagon.
US naval officers said the incident showed why Chinese and American military leaders need a working hotline.
Locklear, who oversees US forces across the Asia-Pacific, said regular communication with China was vital and warned misunderstandings could trigger a conflict in the East China Sea, where Japan and China are locked in a bitter territorial dispute.
Asked about the dispute, Locklear said: "I am concerned, any time you have two large powers, two large economic powers, two large military powers, that have a disagreement that they're not talking to each other about, that has no clear diplomatic end state in sight, that the risk of miscalculation can grow."
He said stand-offs over contested islands in the area often involve "young naval officers, young civilian mariners" from China or Japan who are inexperienced.
http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/us-admiral-war...
Frances Farmer
The Chinese military on Tuesday published photos of the recent launch of one of its ICBMs, a move possibly intended as a deterrence signal to the United States.
The official People's Liberation Army website ran 17 images of a test-firing of the Dongfeng 31 intercontinental ballistic missile from a road-mobile launch platform, giving the world the first peek of the rocket in action since its 2006 induction, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported on Thursday.
The Dongfeng 31 has a projected top traveling distance of about 6,200 miles.
Defense analysts said publication of the pictures was meant to send a message to the United States, which has been bolstering its military presence in Asia amid a number of territorial disputes between China and its U.S.-allied neighbors.
"The disclosure of the Dongfeng 31 at this time obviously aims to respond to the United States' two big military moves in Japan," said Macau-based analyst Antony Wong Dong, referring to the Pentagon's recent decisions to forward-deploy the USS Ronald Reagan aircraft carrier at Yokosuka Naval Base and to field 12 F-22 fighter aircraft at Okinawa.
It was not apparent from the photographs exactly when the missile test-launch occurred, though the caption said it took place this winter.
"The PLA realizes that it needs to increase its transparency, which would also provide them more opportunities to show off their military muscle, as well as quiet questions from the U.S. and other Western countries," military expert Ma Ding-sheng said from Hong Kong.
Ma said he doubted the Dongfeng 31 could reach as far as the United States, despite its claimed range. "All its live-launch drills have happened inside Chinese territory, within 5,000 kilometers [roughly 3,100 miles]," he noted. "And we never see the PLA shooting missiles to the Western Pacific."
http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/china-releases-photos-icbm-launch-mo...
Jan 23, 2014