假戲真做抑或真戲假做? 中美軍隊在罕有的正面交換中攜手主辦聯合災難演習

假戲真做抑或真戲假做? 中美軍隊在罕有的正面交換中攜手主辦聯合災難演習

U.S. And Chinese Armies Hold Joint Disaster Drill In Rare Positive Exchange

An extremely rare moment of US-China military to military cooperation? Ironically it's in the area of emergency response and disaster relief at a moment when both sides are marching towards increasingly unpredictable encounters in the South China Sea, which could at any moment result in a catastrophe in its own right. 

At a moment when U.S. officials are urging China to halt militarization of the South China Sea, Reuters reports this unusual tiny bright spot in Washington-Beijing relations:

Soldiers from China and the United States wrapped up a week of joint disaster relief drills on Saturday, in a display of cooperation against a backdrop of worsening ties between the two countries over trade, the disputed South China Sea and self-ruled Taiwan.

This comes as tensions are soaring between the world's two largest economies and ahead of President Trump's meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 summit in Argentina starting November 30th. 

The exercise was held in the eastern Chinese city of Nanjing, where Chinese and American soldiers simulated natural disaster response and relief. Drills included practice rescuing people from earthquake-destroyed buildings and treating survivors’ injuries at a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) military hospital. 

Military officials on both sides see the drills as crucial in building the kind of mutual understanding and respect that could avoid the type of unintended military action that could be the spark that leads to war, such as recent Chinese military intercepts of American and Western vessels in the South China Sea.

One top Chinese commander, Qin Weijiang, deputy commander of the PLA’s eastern theater command, told reporters:

Only through more contacts, more exchanges and cooperation in areas of common interest can we effectively increase mutual trust and effectively reduce misjudgments.

So I think bilateral exchanges can start from humanitarian and disaster relief exchanges and expand to other areas of common interest.

And the US side issued similarly rare amicable statements. Robert Brown, Commanding General of the U.S. Army Pacific, called the exchange “extremely important” and described: “Just as our top leaders work towards building a strong working relationship and understanding, we through confidence-building measures like this DME [Disaster Management Exchange] must also at our level build a strong understanding of each other,” according to Reuters.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-17/us-and-china-armies-hold-joint-disaster-drill-rare-positive-exchange