Rebranding China’s military for tomorrow’s challenges Last week in Honolulu I spoke at a high-level conference, hosted by our Pacific Command, of special operations forces (SOF) commanders from numerous Pacific Rim countries. This gathering was notable primarily for the attendance--for the second year in a row--of senior officers from the People’s Republic of China. Now, depending on your worldview, you might be aghast that: 1) the U.S. military even interacts with SOF personnel from China, our rising competitor in the East, or 2) that it’s taken this long for such interactions to begin with a power already as globally significant as China is today. I fall into the second category.

Read on at KnoxNews. Read on at Scripps Howard. Note: The Scripps Howard version turned out really funky: unexplained excision in the first paragraph and underscores instead of dashes throughout. Still waiting to hear how that happened...