U.S. Navy Adm. Jonathan Greenert is in China to meet with PLAN Commander in Chief Adm. Wu Shengli.
Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of operations of the U.S. Navy, is currently in China consulting with his counterpart on increasing naval cooperation between the navies of the United States and China. Greenert met Adm. Wu Shengli, commander in chief of the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), on Tuesday. The two focused their discussions on expanding cooperation and communication between the navies of China and the United States amid growing tensions in the East and South China Seas. According to Agence Frances-Presse, Wu welcomed Greenert “with a red-carpet ceremony and an honor guard at his headquarters in Beijing.”
Greenert’s trip to Beijing comes amid a spate of military-to-military interactions between the United States and China in the past year. Additionally, it comes in the wake of the sixth annual U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue. Mil-to-mil ties between the United States and the People’s Republic of China have been somewhat strained by growing tensions in the region. Representative from the two countries traded accusations at the Shangri-La Conference in Singapore earlier this year. Furthermore, a December incident where a U.S Ticoderoga-class guided missile destroyer (Cruiser), the USS Cowpens, was involved in a minor confrontation with Chinese vessels escorting China’s new aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, sowed additional mistrust between the two navies.
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