The PLA at Home and Abroad - Strategic Studies Institute - U.S. Army

Vice-Chairman and Politburo member in July 2006.
General Liang concludes his assessment lamenting
the factors that yet restrain relations, primarily arms
sales to Taiwan, with the arms package announced in
October 2008 being the most recent sale to “seriously
disrupt” military relations.
Military relations with Japan receive similar treatment.
Relations gradually improved following Prime
Minister Abe’s October 2006 visit to China with the
military exchanges and reciprocal ship visits of 2007
and 2008. General Liang placed special emphasis on
the aid for victims of the Sichuan earthquake provided
by Japan’s defense ministry and brought to China by
the Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force (MSDF) destroyer
Sazanami’s Guangzhou port call in June 2008.
General Liang was quite open in his assessment that
reaching even this minimal level of military relations
with Japan was extremely difficult and that considerable
patience will be required to more fully develop
military relations between the two countries.
Despite the overall maturity of military relations
with individual European countries, such as the United
Kingdom (UK) and France, General Liang notes
there is no direct military contact with the European
Union (EU). Presumably, he is referring to the Military
Committee of the European Union (EUMC), chaired
by a four-star flag officer and staffed by EU members’
chiefs of defense or their military representatives. In
assessing why this is the case, General Liang lays out
a litany of recent tensions between China and the EU
that have delayed military relations and the development
of any sense of strategic partnership and trust.
They are, not surprisingly, EU criticism and pressure
on such issues as Tibet and the Dalai Lama, Taiwan,
human rights, climate change, energy resources, and
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