US and China for better military ties

At an afternoon meeting with Rumsfeld, President Hu Jintao said improving military cooperation would percolate across both governments and benefit the broader relationship between the nations.

In a further signal of Chinese openness, Rumsfeld became the first foreigner to visit the headquarters of China’s strategic missile fleet, signing his name in an otherwise blank guest book.

According to American officials, Gen. Jing Zhiyuan, the missile forces commander, told Rumsfeld that China would not be the first to use nuclear weapons, but would use them only in self-defence.

That statement was interpreted by Pentagon officials as a repudiation of comments by another Chinese general over the summer that any attack on China by US forces responding to a Taiwan crisis might result in nuclear retaliation.

Rumsfeld was also told that China’s nuclear missile fleet was not currently aimed at any other nation. —NYT