The United States has no doubt China's President Hu Jintao is in control of his country's military, US defence secretary Robert Gates said on Friday, after a test flight of a stealth fighter jet apparently caught the nation's civilian leaders unaware.
The United States has no doubt China's President Hu Jintao is in control of his country's military, US defence secretary Robert Gates said on Friday, after a test flight of a stealth fighter jet apparently caught the nation's civilian leaders unaware.
The test flight was seen as a demonstration of China''s growing military muscle and partly overshadowed Gates' bridge-building trip to China earlier this week, which preceded a state visit by President Hu next week to the United States.
Gates said the incident was a worry, highlighting the importance of US-China dialogue on military issues with both civilian and military officials.
"I believe we've seen instances where specific events took place where the Chinese civilian leadership might not have known about them in advance," Gates said.
"But in terms of overall control I have no doubt whatsoever that President Hu and the civilian leadership are fully in command."
US officials say Hu and civilian leaders, when meeting with Gates on Tuesday, did not know about the first-ever test flight of a stealth fighter jet by China earlier that day.
Gates cited other incidents, including an anti-satellite test about three years ago, that China's civilian leadership may not have been aware of at the time, but said they may be explained in part by bureaucratic mistakes.
"But on the whole I think that this is something that is a worry," he said.
"One of the reasons I have pressed so hard for there to be a deeper, senior level civilian, military dialogue with both civilian and military representatives from both countries is that we have no forum right now on security issues, or military issues, that includes senior civilians and military."
Gates had also warned in a speech that advances by China's military in cyber and anti-satellite warfare technology could challenge the ability of US forces to operate in the Pacific, renewing concerns about a buildup by the People's Liberation Army.
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