Gates: a 5GW warrior working a wedge

PLA Daily photo.

WAPO piece by way of WPR's Media Roundup.

The gist:

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates accused China's military on Thursday of impeding relations with the Pentagon, taking exception to its unwillingness to invite him to Beijing during his trip to Asia this week.

Gates told reporters that there is a clear split between China's political leaders, who he said want a stronger military connection with Washington, and the People's Liberation Army, which he said does not.

"I think they are reluctant to engage with us on a broad level," he said. "The PLA is significantly less interested in this relationship than the political leadership of China."

Beijing's political and economic relations with Washington have gradually improved in recent years, as the emerging global superpower and the established one have tried to come to terms with each other. But military cooperation has lagged, a source of frustration for Pentagon officials.

They say that communication with the People's Liberation Army needs to improve to deal with regional crises, such as South Korea's accusation that a North Korean submarine torpedoed one of its warships in March, to broader strategic issues, such as the long-term buildup of China's military forces. Washington also has been seeking China's support -- without much success -- in trying to deter Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

We make our choices on things like Taiwan arms sales and military aid to Pakistan, and these choices allow hardliners in the Chinese and Indian militaries to make their case against stronger cooperation with us. At some point, we decide other things like North Korea and Iran really are more important, or we keep with these yin-yanging relationships that never quite come to fruition. You have to remember:  we're the established superpower, and they are the risers, so sensitivities must be observed, just like the Brits did with rising America a century ago. It's just the cost of doing business.

But I like Gates' explanation here, because it's a truthful one: the PLA can't afford too much comity with the US military, because it undercuts their own Leviathan funding and pushes the nation down the path of assuming more responsibility for its expanding global economic network ties, which will bog down the PLA in all sorts of SysAdmin work.

But in Fifth Generation Warfare terms, this is how we do it.