Pentagon plans bid to engage top anti-U.S. China general

[ErnstBlofeld]

East Asia Intel:

The Pentagon is seeking to restart frozen military-to-military talks with China by proposing to fete a hardline anti-U.S. PLA general — Ma Xiaotian.


Ma has since 2007 been deputy commander of the general staff department of the Central Military Commission, the ultimate power in China’s communist power structure.
Ma was also president of the National Defense University, considered a pocket of anti-U.S. military sentiment in China, and was a former deputy head of the PLA Air Force.

He was the chief commander of the 1,000-troop Chinese military contingent that took part in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization military war games last month in Kazakhstan. Specialists say it was the most sophisticated PLA force sent abroad.

The Peace Mission 2010 exercises in Kazakhstan included for the first time J-10 fighter-escorted H-6 bombers, supported by air refuelers and a KJ-2000 AWACS, to support what were multilateral air support operations.

“This is the first time since the Korean War that PLA Air Force combat aircraft have ‘bombed’ a foreign country,” said Richard Fisher, a China military specialist at the International Assessment and Strategy Center.

“The PLA sent a modern Army force, to include T-99A1 main battle tanks, PTL-02 tank destroyers; Type-09 122mm mobile artillery systems, supported modern electronic warfare and command systems.”

Ma met Defense Secretary Robert Gates in November 2007 during a visit to Beijing. The general is considered a potential source of intelligence on PLA warfighting plans, including combined arms warfare development, Chinese power projection and goals for future space warfare.