Gates, on a visit to Hanoi through early Wednesday, will attend a meeting of Asia-Pacific defence ministers and hold high-profile talks with China's General Liang Guanglie.
US defence secretary Robert Gates faces a delicate balancing act at Asia-Pacific talks this week, working to revive military ties with China while grappling maritime security issues that have irked Beijing.
Gates, on a visit to Hanoi through early Wednesday, will attend a meeting of Asia-Pacific defence ministers and hold high-profile talks with China's General Liang Guanglie, one of three Chinese officials considered to be his counterpart.
It will be the first top-level dialogue between both nations'' defence chiefs since Beijing agreed to resume military-to-military ties that it suspended earlier this year over a potential $6.4 billion US arms package for Taiwan.
US officials, briefing reporters accompanying Gates on the flight to Hanoi, said it was too soon to say US-China military ties were fully restored. They described Monday''s talks as only a step toward establishing the kind of dialogue needed to withstand expected bouts of friction in the future.
"It's not as simple as hitting the off switch, and then coming back again nine months later and hitting the on-switch and proceeding as if everything is perfectly fine and good," a senior U.S. defense official said, asking not to be named.
US officials have expressed frustration with what they see as an on-again, off-again relationship with China''s military, whose rapid buildup has raised eyebrows in Washington. A Pentagon report released in August said Beijing was expanding its military edge over Taiwan, increasing the lethality of its short-range ballistic missiles.
Lack of communication between two militaries can be lead to potentially dangerous misunderstandings, US officials say.
"We don't think that serves the interests of either of our countries particularly well," the official said.
The official added Washington wanted to work with Beijing to create a more "durable framework that will allow us to have the sort of continuous dialogue and continuous interactions."
Broader ties between Washington and Beijing have been tested this year over China''s currency, U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, Internet policy, Tibet, U.S.-South Korean military drills and Chinese territorial claims in the South China Sea.
The US trade deficit with China, totaling $226.9 billion in 2009, has fueled trade disputes.
Maritime security
Gates' task of rebuilding ties with China comes at a sensitive moment, given concerns shared by some nations attending the meeting of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus the United States, China, Japan, South Korea, Russia, India, Australia and New Zealand.
Hosts Vietnam and others harbour renewed concern about the hardening of China's position in long-running disputes over sovereignty in the South China Sea and elsewhere, although analysts expect them to play down differences this week.
The South China Sea issue leapt to the fore when foreign ministers from six ASEAN members, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and several others raised concerns at the last major ASEAN meeting in July, prompting a tirade from China.
The US official declined comment on whether Gates would restate Clinton's position in Hanoi, but acknowledged that maritime security issues were on the ASEAN forum's agenda.
Another senior US defence official said: "And we will continue to support our friends and allies in the region in dealing with the security issues that they identify."
Defence chiefs from Japan and China will also hold bilateral talks in Hanoi on Monday, Kyodo news said on Monday.
China and Japan, Asia''s two largest economies, have acted to ease tension following a stand-off over the uninhabited islets in the East China Sea, called Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan.
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