Publication

This paper takes stock of the Sino-US military exchanges that have occurred over the past 15 years, to include how they have evolved and how they’ve impacted the broader relationship between Washington and Beijing. While exploring this overarching theme, the text’s author 1) identifies, compares and discusses the rationales, expectations and approaches taken by both militaries towards their relationship; 2) briefly reviews the key developments in the two countries’ military exchanges between 2001 and 2016; 3) looks at China’s vision of military-to-military relations with the US and Washington’s reciprocal response to Beijing’s model of great-power relations; and 4) highlights the things that might inhibit further Sino-US military exchanges over the short- to medium-term.